A Pirate's Life For Me
by VolumeofForgottenLore
Summary: The Katon Crew encounter a new friend on the open seas. Of course it is Naruto, and that means Akatsuki chasing them, fights between the blond and the captain,a sarcastic Kyuubi, and adventers filled with humor and suspense and angst. SasuNaru.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: In no way shape or form do I own Naruto.

Summary: Sasuke and the Katon crew encounter a floater in the middle of the ocean. The floater is alive (thank god) and happens to be a blond we all know and love. With a new crew member, the Katon crew now has to deal with pirates chasing them, creepy pedophiles lurking in the shadows, Sasuke's inner thoughts, Naruto fighting with Sasuke, and Kyuubi who is too sarcastic for his own damn good. Read on to engage in an adventurous, humorous, and hopefully tasteful tale.

A/N: If you have read my work, then you should know this by now. SasuNaru, but don't let that stop you. There will be gore and angst for everyone!!! (Dana and Allison sweatdrops). Dana (Dei-Dei) and Allison (Allysyon) are my inspirations and muses. If they fail me…then they will die!!!!!! FIRE!!!!

A Pirate's Life For Me

"MAN OVERBOARD!!!" Neji yelled, his sharp eyes spotting a body drifting on a piece of wood not to far from the ship he was in.

He turned away from the water and saw a rush of people coming his way. First was Kiba, then Lee, and then the rest of the crew. They all gathered round Neji trying to spot the body. The thing was nobody besides the captain (who wasn't present at the moment) had eyesight as well as Neji, who was at the moment rolling said eyes. So the crew was searching aimlessly.

"Well don't just stand there. Prepare a boat to go and fetch the body." He ordered. The reaction was immediate. People were scurrying here and there, shouting curses at each other, demanding someone else to do something. Though Neji always spoke with a calm voice, people knew better than to mess with him. He was very…testy…when he was...tested. After a few minutes of pandemonium, a small boat was prepared to go out into the water to collect the body. Again, Neji rolled his eyes. 'By the time it took them to do something, the person could have drowned by now.' Lee, Kiba and Shino climbed into the rescue boat and were lowered by Chouji and Shikamaru.

"Onward my dear friends, to save that poor soul!" Lee cried with his usual enthusiasm. Shino merely lowered his bandana to cover his eyes, while Kiba groaned in annoyance.

"Shut up Lee. We're going, we're going."

Lee blushed and remained silent for the few minutes (one minute with Lee rowing) it took them to reach the drifting body. Kiba carefully reached out of the boat, secured his arms around the person's waist, and hauled them into the boat. Lee was about to row the boat with much enthusiasm but Shino stopped him.

"Check the pulse. If the person is dead, drop them back in the water. No use carrying dead weight. Make's the row back to ship easier."

Kiba and Lee shivered at Shino's tone of voice. Only he could state something so morbidly creepy with a straight face. Not that you could tell. He had his bandana so low on his head, you couldn't see his eyes. His mouth was covered by the collar of his gray wool jacket. Overall, the only thing you could see clearly was his nose.

"Lee, you check the pulse." Kiba ordered inching away from the body.

"W…why my dear friend?" Lee asked, also inching away from the body.

"I pulled it in. You check the pulse. Plus, I have ranking." Kiba said whatever came to mind.

"No, you do not have ranking. What you do have is the experience of touching the body. You basically humped it. Checking the pulse won't hurt you. Remember, death is an illusion." Shino said staring at Kiba. Well, at least that's what Kiba though he was doing.

"Fine." Kiba tentatively put his fore and middle finger to the neck of the body and felt for a pulse.

"Good. Alive." Kiba breathed a sigh.

"ONWARD. Let us help this youth!!!" Lee cried and practically rowed them back to the ship by himself. After they were hoisted up onto the deck, Shino ordered someone to get the captain.

"He's on his way." Neji replied.

"Where are Kakashi and Iruka? Don't they take command of stuff like this?" Kiba asked placing the body on a straw pallet.

"Don't bother to ask." Shikamaru answered yawning.

Shino ignored everyone and being the surgeon, he checked the pulse again and did a standard check up, making sure breathing was normal and such. By the time he was finished he was a little worried, but the captain was there.

"What happened?"

Neji relayed the story to his captain.

"I see. Is she okay?" the Captain asked.

This was one of the things Shino was worried about. "I believe so." People gasped with relief, but Shino hesitated in continuing his last sentence.

"What Aburame?" The captain was getting a little pissed.

"Well, um… I think that it is a boy."

The captain was about to respond with a crude comment when someone interrupted.

"Before you make any crude comments Sasuke, you should find out if our little friend is okay." Kakashi smiled coming into the crowd.

"Where were you?" Kiba barked. Kakashi blushed.

"KAKASHI!!!" The yell echoed throughout the air of the open sea. Kakashi winced.

"Hiding." And with that Kakashi dashed out of sight, and was soon replaced with an enraged Iruka.

"Where is he?" A vein was twitching in Iruka's forehead. The crew (including Sasuke) all pointed in the same direction. Iruka was about to go in that direction when he noticed the body. "What have we here?"

Once again Neji told the story to Iruka, who all the while grew worried. "Is she okay?" All heads turned to Shino expectantly.

"Well, first off, I think it's a he. Second, it's malnourished and under weight. Though they are lean with muscles, their weight could definitely improve. Third, their lungs aren't pulling in enough air. Now if that's because there's too much water in their lungs, or because a rib is constricting them, I don't know. But they are alive and there is no immediate worry." Sasuke nodded at this information.

"Get on with it." He ordered.

Shino gathered up the body in his arms and walked to his surgeon room, closing the door abruptly.

"I hope their youth isn't damaged too much." Lee cried. The rest of the crew silently agreed with him.

"What does he mean 'I think it's a he?'? That person was clearly a girl!" Kiba huffed.

"You held the body. You should have known." Chouji said in between bites of fruit.

"Yea, it's not like I was gonna feel the guy up!"

"Yet you think Shino wants to?"

"Garg!!" Kiba threw his hands up in defeat. "Fine. You win. But he studies bodies and stuff. He shouldn't be squeamish about stuff like that."

"Well, maybe he was too worried about the health of the person than the size of his or her penis or vagina." Sai said. Kiba stared at him thinking 'When the hell did he get here?'. "I've been standing here for a while." Kiba's eyes widened. 'He can read minds now? FREAK!!!!!' "Well, it was difficult for me to even tell the gender. And that's saying something. The person was thin, so it could have been a flat chested girl, or a boy. However there were curves in all the right places. Mmmmm. They definitely have big eyes, so it could be a girl…or an uke boy." At this Sai grinned. The crew rolled their eyes. "But the hair color, which doesn't reveal the gender, is hard to tell. Their ship must have been burned for it to be covered in that much soot. Couldn't have drifted to far either, if the growing amount of wreckage has anything to say."

Everyone turned their head towards the sea, and agreed with Sai. More and more wood was turning up. Other things were too.

"Ya think any loot is around there?" Kiba asked rubbing his hands together.

"Doubt it, and if there is, all would have sunk by now." Sasuke said. He was looking intently at something floating in the water and once he realized what it was, he turned away, his eyes shut with disgust.

"It's an arm!!!!!!" Lee cried in shock. Sasuke cringed. He hated seeing dead things, no matter how much of a pirate he was.

"There seems to be a good amount of bodies floating around." Neji said also turning around.

"Sharks will have a nice meal!" Sai chirped in. Everyone groaned in disgust. "What, all I am saying is that with that many dead bodies around sharks will be coming round for miles to eat!"

Sasuke went into action when he heard this. Even though the ship was relatively safe around sharks, he didn't want to be stuck in a shark frenzy, nor see and hear the bones and sinews crack.

"Neji, see if there are any survivors, if not signal me and we will change course for a few leagues." Sasuke said and directed himself towards the helm. Neji gave him a cue and he turned the helm, shifting the rudder, and turning the ship west. 'Good thing there is plenty of wind.' Sasuke thought.

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The day mowed on. The crew talked about their new ship mate, throwing looks at their surgeon's door every so often. Kakashi eventually turned up after having being found by a raging Iruka, and even Sasuke was lax. It was nearly midnight when Shino's door opened. He was greeted by a group of people, excluding Sasuke who was calmly walking toward him since he was superior.

"Well?" Lee urged.

Shino sighed. "Resting. Now be quiet. Too much water in the lungs so they are fine." And with that he returned to his room. Groans echoed on the ship and they all were disappointed.

"Damn tease." Kiba muttered. Sasuke merely shrugged off the disappointment and looked at the sky. 'It's late. Better assign posts.'

"Alright. Kiba, you hold first watch. Shikamaru second." Sasuke turned on his heel and went back to his quarters

"Damn." Kiba cursed.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru.

"Could of at least give us the gender." Sai muttered.

"What, so you could rape them in your sleep?" Chouji said, still munching on fruit.

"He would have raped them regardless of gender." Kiba snickered.

Chouji laughed and pointed at Sai, who then in turn pushed him through the doorway into their lodgings. The two argued until they were in their hammocks and only when Neji's ghostly white eyes shown in the dark towards them did they quiet. Shikamaru settled down on a pallet under the main mast, deciding to nap until his watch. Kiba perched himself up in the railing of the deck and watched the sea. Nobody cared to know where Iruka and Kakashi went, but all were interested in their new guest.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Not mine. Or is it…

The night passed without incident (meaning they were far from sharks and Sai didn't molest anyone that night), and Shino walked out of his room with an invisible smirk on his face. Ohohoho, did he have some news. He walked over to where Shikamaru was napping on the rail and poked him. The sleeper shook himself awake to see Shino looking like a cat that caught a canary. Or that's what it looked like from what he could see.

"Wake up the others. Our guest is fine and waking soon. Their story or what I heard of it at least, is something of value to us." Shino said and walked back to his room.

Shikamaru woke the others and after a few minutes or so, everyone was crowded around the surgeon's door. Shino opened it and ushered them in quietly, Sasuke leading the rest. The shipmates gazed down at the awaking figure. The first thing that caught their eye was the bright golden hair, that stuck up haphazardly around the head, though it looked like the new style some cabin boys were wearing these days, but this was definitely bed hair. Then there was the golden tan skin. The next thing they noticed was the three thin scars on each tan cheek, placed so symmetrical they looked natural and not at all out of place. Out of all these things, the main thing they noticed was the unfocused clear, deep, blue eyes. They were such an odd, yet beatific color. When one looks at them, they look deep, intense blue, bluer than the sea at high noon. If one was to get much much closer, they would see miniscule speckles of a darker blue in the orbs. Sasuke noticed this, but it wasn't because he was so close to the person. No, not at all, so he decided to take a step back from the person. 'I really have good eyesight.' Sasuke thought and glanced at Neji. Neji just stared and stared. Silence engulfed the company of people and no one was inclined to talk. Sasuke was about to say something when…

"Shino…why do I have a whole bunch of perverts staring at me?"

This shattered the silence.

"PERVERT??!!! Why you little…mmph!" Kiba was silenced by Lee's hand.

"Sorry my youthful friend, Kiba was just expressing his excitement!"

"No I wasn't." Kiba dodged Lee's hand again.

The person just raised an eyebrow. "Fine. Your not perverts. Well at least not all of you." Sai was constantly moving closer to the guest, who slapped Sai's wandering hand.

"Ah, Sorry Naruto." Shino apologized as he pushed through his friends to get to Naruto.

"So you are a boy." Sai leered and once again, tried to move closer.

Silence. Everyone watched in horror as they saw the tan skin turn to a red, and a vein protruded from Naruto's forehead. He took in a deep breath and then…

"YES I AM A BOY YOU FUCKING PERVERT!! WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU THINK OTHERWISE? IS IT BECAUSE I'M SHORT? TOO THIN??? BIG EYES???? WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU CARE ABOUT MY GENDER!!!!!!" While yelling this, Naruto was simultaneously choking Sai by the neck.

"Naruto calm down." Shino said, though it wasn't a convincing order.

Naruto gradually slowed down and shoved Sai away from him. He sat back on the edge of his bed and took deep breaths in.

"Okay. I'm calm. For now. Someone please answer my questions. Shino only told me I am on a ship, Sasuke is captain, and I was found drifting a day ago." Naruto stated in a cool voice.

Sasuke stepped up and addressed himself. "I am captain of this ship, the Katon."

"Okay. Now will you answer my questions?"

"Hn." Naruto blanched at the raven. 'Does he always grunt as an answer?'

"Good. First, how far away from we from where you found me?"

Sasuke cocked his head to the side "About 20 leagues."

Naruto nodded. "Who are these people?" He threw a nasty look at Sai.

Sasuke allowed each of the crew members to address themselves.

"Chouji, cook."

"Neji, boatswain."

"Shikamaru, gunner."

"LEE!!! GUNNER!!!!!" Naruto rubbed his ears after that introduction.

"Kakashi, First mate."

"Iruka, Quarter Master."

"Kiba, pirate."

"Sai, pirate."

"You know me." Shino nodded.

"Sasuke, captain."

"Nice to meet you all. Now can I ask you all another question?" Sasuke nodded. "Were there any survivors other than me?" Sasuke inclined his head ever so slightly.

"No." he answered.

Naruto was silent for a minute, taking the information in. His head was bowed a little bit, and a single tear was seen trailing its way down his chin.

"I am sorry for your loss?" Sasuke tried to empathize, but he wasn't that type of person. The empathetic statement sounded more like a question with a dash of sarcasm than comforting.

Naruto raised his head and everyone was shocked. Instead of red eyes, puffy nose, and a frown, and bright full smile was on his face. "My loss? Yes, I am sorry I loss the chance to see all of their deaths. I wonder how they all died. Drown? Shot? Murdered? Fire? Stabbed? All I remember an explosion, men coming on the ship, then I am here." Naruto grinned impishly. They all looked at the boy as if he was insane.

"You ain't sad about your crew?" Kiba asked.

"Sad? Crew? I was a slave on that ship. And now they are all dead. And that means I am free." Naruto cried and was bouncing up and down on his bed. Everyone's eyes widened at the knowledge of him being a slave. After a few minutes of seeing Naruto bounce, Sasuke wanted to know some answers.

"What was the part you skipped over?" Sasuke inquired.

Naruto stopped his celebration and eyed Sasuke. "What part did I skip?"

"You don't remember anything else? Like what happened after the men came on the ship?" Sasuke glared hard at Naruto.

"That was whatever happened between the men coming on the ship and me blacking out. I don't remember." Naruto said, hoping he looked believable.

Sasuke was about to push farther when he saw the look in Naruto's eyes. Desperation. So he decided to put that matter aside.

"Fine. I'll leave it at that for now."

Naruto squinted at Sasuke and crossed his arms. "Next question."

"What was the name of the ship you were on?"

"The Kyuubi." Gasps filled the room. The Kyuubi was a notorious ship, known for it's murderous pillaging around the ports, and their harsh…abuse…of their captives. Especially the dainty, feminine ones. Naruto bowed his head. "Look, I wasn't there voluntarily obviously if I was a slave. I never hurt anyone nor had the desire to. I did what was needed so don't judge me."

Sasuke shook his head. "Do you know the name of the ship that attacked you?"

"…"

"Do you know or not?"

"The name will come to me." Naruto replied and narrowed his eyes, tilting his head up. He grinned at Sasuke. It was the type of grin that said 'I know something you don't know.'

'He has a lot to hide doesn't he? And what's with the grin? Idiot.' Sasuke thought.

"Now, what are you going to do with me? You can drop me off at the nearest port, and I will be out of you chicken butt hair forever." Naruto grinned. Everyone in the room stifled a laugh. Sasuke's mask of indifference remained on his face but inside he was seething. 'How dare HE? He looks like a fucking girl, and he comments on my HAIR?'

"Well, we won't reach another port until next week. Suna. Until then, for payment for your lodging and the use of our supplies and surgeon, you will be the cabin boy." Sasuke smirked.

Naruto's face fell. "You mean like swab the deck, chuck off barnacles, and clean up cabin boy?"

"Any other type?" Sasuke coolly replied. The look in Naruto's eyes told him otherwise. 'I really need to talk to this boy later.'

"Fine. But at the end of the week, I want out." Naruto said.

"You'll be fine with us dropping you off in Suna?" Shino asked.

Naruto nodded. "I have some good friends there. I'm sure they will welcome me."

"WELCOME ABOARD MY YOUNG FRIEND!" Lee cried, embracing Naruto tightly.

"Uh cun breed." Naruto chocked out.

"He can't breathe." Iruka said. Lee let go of Naruto and grinned sheepishly.

"Okay. Now that I have been welcomed will you all GET THE HELL OUT SO I CAN CHANGE?" Naruto yelled. All of the crew finally noticed the lack of clothing. The whole time Naruto wore an oversized shirt that looked like it belonged to Chouji.

"Why Naruto? Your shoulders look delicious." Sai cooed. Naruto lunged for the throat but the crowd pushed Sai out the room. 'Damn. I will get him.' Naruto turned to Sasuke who was still in the room. "Clothes should be in that sack over there." He pointed to a corner of the room. "I expect answers later. If not, you're not getting off this ship." Sasuke smirked then exited the room.

After a few seconds of staring at the closed door, Naruto's eye twitched. "BASTARD!!!"

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The week was eventful, and the crew was pleased with their new friend. Naruto was certainly a character. Though he often complained about the duties assigned to him, he completed each task with such enthusiasm that even Sasuke's eyes couldn't find a speck of dust on the ship anywhere. There was however many arguments between the captain and the new cabin boy.

"Bastard, I don't cook!"

"Well Chouji is sick and we don't all need to catch it."

"Have someone else do it."

Sasuke glared at the boy.

"I DON'T COOK!" Naruto yelled, furious at Sasuke.

"I expect a meal by twilight. Get to work." Sasuke turned and left.

Everyone counted down from three…two…one…"BASTARD!" However their meal for the night consisted of roasted potatoes, stir fry scallops, and roasted pineapple. The next argument was much more violent.

A dagger was seen thrown in the direction of their captain. It was well aimed; it sliced a single hair off of Sasuke's duck butt hair style.

"I am NOT doing that!" Naruto screamed, still in pose after throwing the small dagger.

Sasuke turned around with fire in his eyes!!

"What you just did was mutiny."

"And what you want me to do is degrading!!!"

"Hn." Sasuke pulled out the dagger from the wood it lodged itself into (it was stuck in pretty deep) and walked into his room. The crew once again started the countdown from three…tw…"BASTARD!!" 'Whoa. He didn't even make it to one.' Kiba thought. That night Naruto washed all of the crew's undergarments. Needless to say that when they wore them again, they were soft and smelled fresh. Except for Sasuke. His felt a little on the stiff side. And he had an unbearable itch. He would later be seen inconspicuously scratching his bottom while he was at the helm. Naruto would snicker every now and then while he was doing his chores chanting 'He's got crabs' over and over.

Arguments continued until the end of the week, whether they were about Naruto scraping the grease off the pots and pans without any aid of a tool, or how much of a bastard Sasuke was. The night before the ship was scheduled to reach the port of Suna, Sasuke decided that it was time for Naruto to answer his questions, or he wouldn't be getting off the boat. So Sasuke called Naruto into his quarters.

"What do you want now?" Naruto grumbled as he sank into a plush chair in Sasuke's room. Though he loathed admitting it, Naruto thought that Sasuke's room was awesome. He had three circular windows around the room, which allowed Naruto to see straight into the ocean. There was a mahogany desk in the center, with a comfy hammock handing from the side. There were two chairs, one behind the desk and the other if front of it, which was what Naruto was now occupying. Sasuke's eye twitched at Naruto's question, but his face remained stone. 'No respect.' Sasuke wanted to avoid confrontation, so he would leave insulting the idiot until after he got what he wanted.

"I want answers." was his reply. Naruto stiffened, his eyes hardened and his face became blank. "What do you want to know?" Sasuke thought about this for a while. "I want to know your story, which includes why you are a slave, who attacked you, and then other questions that may pop up into my head."

Naruto sighed. "Is it really that important?"

"I could be keeping a criminal. Despite our generosities, we are still pirates, and if your head holds a few shillings it would be worth something to us."

Naruto glared. 'Bastard.' "Fine. My name is Naruto. My mom died when I was born, and I was informed that my father was killed in a raid when I was 6 month's old. I am now 17."

"Hn."

"What?"

"Your so young." Sasuke smirked.

"And you're what? 18?"

Sasuke's smirk faltered oh so slightly. A normal human being wouldn't have seen it. But then again, Naruto is definitely doesn't fit into the category of a 'normal human being'.

"Ha. You have no right to talk about age. Ha. But I will give you credit for being captain of a ship at this age. And having crew members older than you. Impressive." Naruto gave a cheeky grin.

"Hn."

"I've noticed that you vocabulary holds a lot of grunts."

"Hn." Naruto was getting a little annoyed, and was about to express his feelings when Sasuke stopped him. "Your story."

'Damn. Still curious.' "Well, I was brought up by this old man named Sarutobi. He kept me until I was 5, when his house was raided." Naruto's eyes glazed over. "He was killed, and I was taken. The pirates that took me were from the ship Akatsuki."

"WHAT?" Sasuke gripped his seat. Why was the boy only telling him this now? Did he not know of his history? Of his angst? Of his god forsaken emo-ness?

"Yep, their leader was Itachi. And if I remember correctly, your brother?" Naruto said slyly.

Sasuke struggled to maintain his composure. "Why are you just telling me this now?"

"It had no value to you. All Itachi did half the time was rant and rave about power and money and stuff. He talked about being the best and how his little brother won't ever defeat him. Pretty crazy."

Sasuke doubted his brother ranted and raved, but when he thought about having someone like Naruto as company, even someone with s much patience and composure as Itachi would rant and rave. So he took a deep breath in and nodded for Naruto's continuation. "Anyway, so I was kept on that ship until I was 14. I was a slave for them."

'I wonder what they could have wanted him to do?' Sasuke then remembered that his brother used to be a little loose when they lived together. There was no doubt in his mind on what Itachi might have wanted Naruto to do. Sasuke felt sympathy for the boy. Almost.

"I don't want your 'almost' pity. I am fine now and free. Anyway, Itachi and his crew were a lot nicer than Kyuubi. One day while we were resting at a port, I got Kisame, Itachi's first Mate drunk, so that was when I snuck off the boat. But I ran into some trouble. A fight broke out in one of the pubs I was passing and I ended up being captured by Kyuubi. I was with them until a few days ago. The ship that attacked us was the Akatsuki. Rich right?" Naruto gave a dry smile. Sasuke remained still. "So they tried to get me back, along with the loot, but the ship suddenly caught fire. I escaped and now I am here." Naruto sighed at the end of his tale. Sasuke took a moment to digest this information. Now that he knew Naruto's history, he knew why the boy was hesitant to tell it, and why he reacted some ways to certain things.

"Fine. I am satisfied with your story."

"Good. Now am I able to leave tomorrow?" Naruto asked getting up and turning towards the door.

"Hn." Naruto grinned and walked out the door. Tomorrow, he would truly be free.

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	3. Chapter 3

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They arrived in Suna at high tide the next day, and all were on the dock giving their good byes to Naruto.

"Well, it was nice knowing you all. I really am thankful for your hospitality, despite how perverted or bastardly you might be." Naruto looked at Sai and Sasuke respectively. "It's been nice. But now, I am off!" Naruto shouted with enthusiasm.

"I hope your journey is a youthful one!" Lee shouted, waterfalls flowing down his face and he embraced Naruto.

"See ya round." Kiba said.

Shikamaru gave a weak wave and Chouji expressed his good bye by giving Naruto a bag of his favorite snack. Dried shrimp. Sai tried to cop a feel but Naruto slapped his hand away harshly. Iruka gave a fatherly/motherly hug while Kakashi did his signature wave. Naruto stepped up to Sasuke and offered a hand, which Sasuke reluctantly took.

"Are you docking here for the night?" Naruto asked pulling his hand away.

"Yes. There's some business I need to attend to."

"M'kay." Naruto gave a weak smile and started to walk away slowly. He gave a final wave and smile and disappeared into the crowd of Suna. Lee burst with tears. "I wonder if we will ever see his youthfulness again."

"Maybe. Well, come on. Captain, can we hit a pub 'for we go to see that noble?" Kiba asked patting his stomach. Sasuke groaned, but looked up at the sky. Their business was to be attended to late that night. He preferred to do business in the dark. It made him seem more intimidating. They had an hour or two, as long as the crew wasn't smashed.

"Hn. But only an hour. Report back to the ship then, and we then we will settle down to business." The crew wooped and searched for the nearest pub.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The hours flew by (A/N: didn't Sasuke say only one hour?), as the shipmates ate and drank. Lee was forced to stick with watered down gin mixed with lemon juice. He tended to become a wee bit difficult to handle when he had…aw hell, he became downright psycho when he had too much to drink. Since Shino and Iruka had the lowest drinking tolerance and therefore rarely drank, they resided over the Lee situation, with Neji there to make sure Lee didn't decide to turn on Iruka and Shino if he got a little excited. Chouji was more interested in the different foods the bar had while Shikamaru sat slumped on a chair next to him, sleeping with his hand still on his untouched pint. Kakashi and Kiba were in the midst of a heavy duty drinking game while Sai was eyeing all the locals that were able to catch his attention, and would occasionally flirt with an outgoing youth. Sasuke sat in a corner of the pub, looking at a piece of paper and would periodically take a swig of the iced tea he ordered.

'We should leave in a few minutes. He would be mad if we were late.' Sasuke sighed and glanced around the bar. This wasn't the first time he had done this, glance around the bar and sigh I mean. For some reason, he felt that if he just kept his eye open, he might run into the bright eyed blond again. For some reason, the captain just couldn't get this cabin boy out of his head. Naruto was the first person to ever do that to Sasuke. The first person to ever make Sasuke conscious of himself, and have him feel insecure about his superior position. The way Naruto carried himself gave nothing away to the horrors he had been through, and even though he may be a vulgar, feminine, loud mouth ball of never ending energy, he still held himself up with respect. And this was what was bothering Sasuke. He had been in contact with other people who held themselves with respect while in his presence…hell a few of them became his crew members. Sasuke smirked to himself when he looked at Iruka, Kakashi and Neji. But still, they felt a little inferior to him, even though they never show it. Naruto…he never ever seemed to even think about feeling inferior to Sasuke. And this is where the problem came up. Was he not as powerful as he thought? His manliness was being questioned now, and that made Sasuke feel insecure. Sasuke shook his head, and once again glanced around the room. Time to rally up the boys.

"Kakashi, Iruka, gather everyone up and have them meet me outside within five minutes." Sasuke then strode out of the door.

Iruka groaned as he looked at Kakashi. He was dead drunk. 'Great, now I have to deal with two messy drunks.' Iruka sighed as he started to frog march, a growling Kiba and a horny-drunk Kakashi out of the bar, nodding to Neji. Neji turned to the rest of the crew.

"Time to go."

Shikamaru jerked awake when he felt his stool fall from under him. He just had enough time to plant his feet on the ground or he would have had a very painful awakening. He glared at Shino who just walked by pushing a singing Lee, thanking his high collar for concealing his smirk. Chouji shoved some of the fried squid on his plate into his mouth and waddled out the pub. Shikamaru cursed and walked out the pub, pulling Sai by the ear off of a bartender.

"Okay, let's get going. I want this to be quick and efficient." Sasuke ordered to his crew once they were all assembled and stalked off into a deeper part of town. Kakashi, who was now miraculously sober, waved his hand and everyone followed their captain.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Their destination was a mansion in the dead center of the city. It was a two story high building, with a 17th century theme. What made this building so special was because it was surrounded by the city, as in it was on its own separate little island in the middle of Suna. There was a bridge to get across to the island but you had to have an appointment. And if you tried to swim across or row across the waters, you were never seen again. Sasuke was thinking of purchasing a house modeled on their destination. 'I could fill the moat with electric eels.' Sasuke smirked.

"Why is this place so creepy?" Kiba whined, finally sobering up when Sai threatened to throw him in the moat after he nearly threw up on Sai.

"Asking questions that cannot be answered is like looking for fish in the sand." Kakashi quipped and crinkled his eye, showing that he was smiling. 'Will he ever take off that bandana?' Kiba thought. While he was off in la-la-land he didn't realize that the company had stopped. So he ended up running into the black gothic styled door.

"Ow ow ow ow. Son of a bit-" Kiba trailed off as the door opened slowly, and a pale face emerged from the shadows.

"Who is this idiot?" The person asked.

Kiba reversed as quickly as possible and cowered behind Iruka. Sasuke, if he wasn't an Uchiha, would have sighed.

"I apologize for my crew member's behavior. I am Sasuke Uchiha and I believe that I have an appointment with the master of this house." Sasuke stepped forward.

The person behind the door smiled and opened the door wider, revealing a curvy body decked in a black rap. Her hair was in 4 blonde pony tails.

"Yep, you're expected. I'm Temari, the sister of the master of this house." Temari grinned and allowed the troop of men in the house.

"My brother is in his room. You can go and see him. Kankuro, my other brother, will probably be waiting outside the room to let you in. Just go up the stairs. Oh and we have a guest here, but don't mind him. You'll probably get along." And with that, Temari turned down another corridor.

The crew stared up at the ominous stairwell. "Yea um Sasuke, why don't you start going up there?" Kiba asked. He looked around but didn't see his captain, or the rest of his mates.

"Guys?" He looked up the stairs and saw that most of them had reached the top of the stairs, leaving him behind. He quickly scurried up and nearly jumped on Shino's back.

"Calm down." Shino said.

"Be quiet. Don't be embarrassing please." Iruka commanded giving them all a look that promised a slow and painful death if they happened to misbehave. The rest nodded while Kiba gulped. Sasuke looked down the hallway and saw a lone sliver of light seeping through the doorway. He walked over to the open door and was about to talk when...

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THESE ARE THE ONLY SPARE CLOTHES YOU HAVE?" A familiar voice yelled from inside the room. Sasuke's eyebrows scrunched together, not wanting to believe his own ears.


	4. Chapter 4

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THESE ARE THE ONLY SPARE CLOTHES YOU HAVE?" A familiar voice yelled from inside the room. Sasuke's eyebrows scrunched together, not wanting to believe his own ears. That was when…

"He he he. But you have the perfect body for something like this Naruto." Another voice snickered. Sasuke didn't know how to react. Should he wait until they were done, or should he show his presence? Was he ready to see the person who actually made him feel inferior? As he made up his mind and decided to turn around Sai took action.

"Naru-chan!" He yelled and busted into the room. The object of Sai's rampage looked up, widened his eyes, and jumped under the covers of the bed he was on.

"Naruto?" Kiba asked also coming into the room.

"Well, what are the odds?" Kakashi said.

"Naruto!" Iruka walked over to Naruto's side and gave him a hug through the covers.

As the rest of the crew came into the room, they sensed an ominous dark presence. A very ominous, dark, deadly, torturing presence. The boys slowly turned their heads toward the darkest, dampest corner in the room, and found the source of the terrible aura.

"Naruto, who are these people?" Gaara asked stepping from the shadows. Naruto grinned sheepishly. "The Katon crew!" Gaara's aura seemed to lessen, and his eyes lightened up a little.

"So this is your friend?" Chouji asked eyeing Gaara with his peripheral vision.

"Yep. Guys, meet Gaara, one of my closest friends." Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. "And the guy over there is Kankuro." Naruto muttered darkly as he indicated to the man who was currently coming out of the walk-in-closet with arms full of clothes.

"Hey. You guys came just in time to see little Naruto here pick out some clothes." Kankuro sing-songed, dumping the clothes on the bed. Naruto remembered the reason why he was screaming in the first place.

"I CAN'T WEAR STUFF LIKE THIS!!!" Naruto was now in full blown hysterics, jumping up and down on the bed crying.

"But it's the only stuff that will fit you." Kankuro sighed.

"But Gaara is small too, why can't I wear some of his clothes?" Naruto whined giving big puppy dogs eyes to Gaara. His non-existent eyebrows raised the smallest of a fraction. It was hard to resist such a cute face. Despite his cold exterior, he had a soft spot for Naruto. They had met a while ago.

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When they were both of the boys were 10, the Akatsuki decided to dock at Suna. Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro were the children of a wealthy noble man, and decided to wander about their city for a while. They had been impressed with the size of the Akatsuki ship and spent a whole day sitting in front of it, talking about the size of it, how many guns it held, who was its captain and other things that would entertain a young child's mind. Of course Gaara hadn't participated much in the conversation, but he still enjoyed himself. That was of course until Kankuro decided to do something stupid…as per usual.

"Temari. I dare you to go on board and steal something from the ship. It's empty so do it now before anyone comes back." Temari groaned at her brother's stupidity. Though the two eldest siblings were only 11, it was clear that Temari was ages ahead of her brother.

"No."

"Awww. Why not?" Kankuro's face contorted into a pout.

"You do it."

"M…me?"

"Yep." Temari rolled her eyes.

"Why?"

"Don't ask someone else to do something you can't even do." Temari sighed and leered at her brother.

Gaara in the mean time just sat there. Being a quiet boy, he had very few friends save for his siblings. They understood each other the best. Gaara, being the youngest, always wanted to try and impress his older siblings. This was his chance. As the two were arguing he crept up the ramp onto the deck of the ship and looked around. 'Need to find something to steal.' He thought. He saw a trap door and cautiously opened it. It was heavy but he managed. He climbed down the steps and carefully peered around, praying no one was in the cellar.

"Who's there?" A voice called out.

Gaara froze.

"It's okay. Please." The voice answered again.

Gaara hesitated for a moment, but walked further into the room. He gasped at what he saw. A boy, no older than he was fettered to a wooden beam. There was a chain around his neck and wrists. His eyes took in the golden blond hair that still shone despite the darkness of the cabin, and the grime in it. Blue eyes twinkled and sparkled with light.

"What are you doing here?" The boy asked. Gaara stayed silent, which made the boy only more determined. "Don't talk much?" Gaara nodded. "Well, that's okay because I never have anyone to listen to me let alone talk to me, so I'll do the talking and you can nod." Gaara blinked at the speed at which this boy talked. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki." Gaara frowned at the name.

"Fishpaste whirlpool?"

Naruto blushed. "It's a cool name, and naruto is delicious." He licked his lips thinking about a nice hot bowl of naruto and ramen. Mmmm…ramen.

"You're drooling." Gaara stated. Naruto snapped out of his daze and wiped his mouth, cringing at the noise the rusty chains made when he moved his hands. "Thanks. What's your name?"

Gaara thought about answering for a moment. "Gaara."

"Nice to meet you Gaara. Wanna play a game?" Naruto asked, a grin on his face. Gaara remained still. "There's a deck of cards on that barrel over there. We can play poker!"

Gaara shrugged and grabbed the deck and sat before Naruto.

"What can we bet?" Gaara was dealing out the cards in Texas Hold 'Em style.

"Ummmm" Naruto thought. There was nothing of value he had, and there would be no fun if he played and didn't win anything. "Secrets." Naruto answered. Gaara cocked his head to the side at the response but agreed to it. The two became quick friends, playing for 4 whole hours until Gaara had to sneak off the ship when the Akatsuki crew came back. Throughout the years, the Akatsuki had docked in Suna occasionally, and every time they did, Gaara would seek on the ship to see the blond slave. After their second meeting, Temari and Kankuro joined. Temari cried for days after seeing the beautiful blond boy enslaved, while Kankuro did his best to act tough but inside he was tormented. Gaara only wished that they would see that of all things Naruto needed, their sympathy and pity wasn't one of them. But Naruto merely smiled and enjoyed the company. Gaara and Naruto considered themselves to be very close friends. Because of that poker game, the two shared there darkest secrets. To this day no one knows more about the two boys than each other.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You can't wear my stuff."

"Whyyyy?"

"Boy's clothes won't look right on a girl's body." Gaara smirked while everyone laughed.

Naruto closed his eyes and counted to 10. Well, he tried to. He stopped after 2.

"SHUT THE HELL UP. YOU ALL WISHED YOU COULD HAVE THIS BODY!"

"Riiiiiiiiight. I definitely want to have nice hips and curves. Very manly." Kiba choked out.

"Well this is the closest you're ever going to get to a curvy body dog breath." Naruto spat out. The room went silent.

"Ouch." Sai said. Kiba launched at Naruto, who avoided the assault by shoving the closest body near him in front. It happened to be Sasuke.

"Get off me!" Sasuke yelled shoving Kiba off of him and sprung off the bed. Kiba blushed and went into a corner while Sasuke turned to glare at Naruto.

"Something wrong bastard?" Sasuke wondered how someone could act and sound so innocent and have their words be so vicious.

"Idiot." Sasuke grunted and turned away. Naruto harrumphed.

"Now back to the subject at hand. Can anyone give me clothes that will fit me?" Kankuro was about to interrupt but Naruto cut him off. "That doesn't include girl's clothes." The room was silent. Naruto sighed in defeat. "Let me see some of Temari's old clothes." Kankuro grinned wickedly, and dumped a pile of clothes in front of Naruto.

"Now will you all GET OUT?" Naruto yelled, forcing people out of his room with the sheer sound of his voice.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Gaara closed the door and motioned for his guests to follow him down to his study. There were three couches in a square with a desk to make up the last side. Bookshelves lined the walls full of trinkets and maps and books. Gaara sat at his desk and his guests made themselves comfortable on the couches. Silence ensued.

Kiba looked around nervously. He, like Naruto, could never stand to be in silence for to long. He started to squirm, which earned him a sharp poke and look from Sai who was sitting next to him. Sasuke, who was closest to Gaara, had a stoic expression on his face. Gaara mirrored his stare. Kiba wished he could read the minds of the occupants of the room. Maybe then he would know why it was so quiet. Unfortunately, that wouldn't have helped at all.

Sai: I hope Naruto changes into something kinky… NO! Lolita. Well, a Lolita boy is kinky. Heh.

Chouji: This silence is killing me. I want to eat chips but then that would interrupt the silence then I would have glares sent my way and then I would lose my appetite and then I would be hungry and then…I want to eat chips.

Shikamaru:…silence is golden.

Shino: I wonder if I can get some herbal supplements here. Suna has many rare herbs since it's climate only permits certain plants to grow. And if I can't get them, then I am sure Naruto can.

Neji: This is exactly what I was arguing with Naruto about before. Fate is undefeatable. It was fate that led us to meet before. And now, when we thought we wouldn't see him for a while, we end up meeting a few hours later. And he is close with our negotiator. Fate can be a cruel mistress, but she has a gentle hand at times.

Iruka: I hope Naruto doesn't have extremely uke clothes on. These boys haven't had a female companion in a long ti-… ever, and I am sure their bodies are yearning something feminine. Especially Sai. You can practically see him drooling thinking about Naruto. Wait…he is drooling!! PERVERT!

Kakashi: Iruka looks so cute when he thinking. Awww, look at him. He looks so motherly. Probably thinking about the boys growing up again. Wait…his face is changing. Uh oh. He has that look on. He only has that look on when he is mad at me for doing something perverted. What did I do now? Oh god. Now I have to evacuate him and get to a distance at least 500 meters away. No one can escape the wrath of Iruka. Time for Plan S.K.F.I.W. or 'Save Kakashi From Iruka's Wrath' Now when I give the signal Kiba will make a distraction while Shino and Chouji will block me from Iruka's view, while I escape. If this fails then we will go to plan H.I.O.T.H.W.A.B. or 'Hit Iruka Over The Head With A Bottle.' I know it's kinda harsh, but it's a life or death situation. Okay ready and…wait. Iruka isn't looking at me. He's looking at Sai. Phew. Sorry Sai, but as we both know in the Perverts Code of Conduct rule #124: It's every pervert for himself (closet, hermit, or super pervert) when an Uke knows a Seme is being perverted. Kakashi couldn't help but have his heart go out to Sai, but when he saw the look on Iruka's face, he reeled that sympathy back in.

Lee: It is nice to see the Youth of Naruto again. His Youthful Red Head Friend seems to treat him kindly. Oh, I wish that Sasuke would stop looking so Unyouthful.

Sasuke: Hn. He seems to have a soft spot for the idiot. This could play in my favor. Hn. I have to use the bathroom.

Gaara: Eww. Uchiha. Kami-sama how I loathe them. Especially Itachi for what he did to Naruto. But this one isn't so bad I guess. I mean, he did help Naruto. But an Uchiha started this whole Naruto charade. But I should be nice. But the Uchiha doesn't look trustworthy. But then again…heh. Its fun making them squirm. Look at the dog boy. Just like Naruto, can't stand the silence. I love to watch them squirm. Squirm dog boy, squirm…um yea. I hate Uchiha's.

So it is plain that knowing the other's thoughts wouldn't have helped Kiba in away what-so-ever. But the silence was maddening. He had to do something about it before he went totally insane…or more insane than he already was. Just when he was about to burst forth with angst…

"GET AWAY FROM ME TEMARI!!" Naruto busted into the room.

"But you look so CUUUUUUUUUTEEE!" Temari jumped onto Naruto's back and proceeded with a glomping that the boy would never forget.

"Argh. Get off me!!" Naruto thrust Temari off his back and sought refuge. Nothing was sturdy enough to protect him from her giddiness. 'Gotta hide, gotta hide, gotta hide'. Naruto leaped behind Gaara and proceeded to cower behind his back. Gaara's lip twitched up in amusement. Temari attempted to glomp Naruto again, but the glare her brother was sending her was enough to make her calm down. It wasn't as if she was afraid of her brother, but she knew when to respect his wishes.

She smiled sheepishly "Uh, hi. Sorry Naru-chan."

Naruto bristled at the remark and stepped out from behind Gaara and invaded her personal space. "Don't. Call. Me. That."

"What? Naru-Chan?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

Naruto gave a smug grin before turning to plop himself down on the desk when he heard a muffled "Naru-chan." He spied the culprit, and attacked immediately.

"Sai, you freaking pervert!! Leave me the hell alone." He was busy straddling the boy and choking him to death. Iruka would have helped, but he felt justice was being served since the boy was having perverted thoughts about Naruto anyway.

"Soo…bbyy."Sai squeezed out. Naruto calmed down and let go of Sai's neck. He then blushed when he realized how he was situated on Sai and jumped off, returning to the desk. He sat down sighed, and looked at the other people in the room. They were all quiet, and were all staring at him.

"What?" Naruto asked, cocking his head to the side. This little motion sent Temari off her rocker. "KAWAII!!!" She turned around to hide the nosebleed that was bound to spurt forth.

"What?" Naruto scrunched his eyebrows adding to the nosebleed Temari was now sporting. "Whaaaaat?" Naruto pouted and whined, kicking his legs back a forth and crossing his arms. That was it. Kankuro, Iruka, Sai, Lee, Temari, and Kiba all glomped Naruto shouting things like "Sooo Cute" and "Oh MY Gosh" and "Is it possible to be this cute?" In all the commotion Naruto slipped out from the mountain of bodies and stood near Gaara, carefully watching everyone. He was now truly scared and confused. The body mountain realized their target was missing and promptly stopped moving. Their wide eyes landed on Naruto.

"What the hell?" Naruto asked. "Will someone tell me what is going on?"

"Look in the mirror." Kakashi chuckled.

Naruto closed the door to the study. It had a full length mirror on the back. It wasn't the Gaara was conceited. He just had to make sure his presence was acceptable to his standards. He didn't think himself a poncy-princy boy who spent at least 20 minutes making sure his hair was in place and shoes were shined. He just made sure he had a clean and superior look compared to everyone else. Now back to Naruto. He stood in front of the mirror and tried to figure out was wrong. He had on Temari's old beige shirt that was big for him, so it hung down to his knees. There were leather cords that tightened the v-neck so little hints of flesh shown through the strands. The sleeves were long on him too, so they hung down to his fingertips. To secure the waist, he had on a long, 4 inch thick leather belt that had an intricate buckle. It looked like a cross with vines and leaves circling it. The rest of the belt hung down on his left hip, all the way to his knees. For bottoms he had on tight dark blue knickerbockers that stopped below his knee. Since the shirt was so long, it looked as though he had nothing under it. For shoes, he wore soft, leather brown clogs. All in all, he looked adorable, kawaii, cute, uke-ish…whatever name you want to put to him. Even Sasuke had to admit to himself the idiot looked a little cute. Sasuke's inner self was screaming at him for being such a dick and not saying that the blond looked delicious, but whatever. Inner Sasuke doesn't count. In fact, he doesn't even exist.

"What? I see nothing wrong." Naruto stated turning around to face everyone.

"Kawaii! He doesn't know the strength of his own power." Temari stated, going into full raging fan-girl mode.

"What?"

"What she means is you look extremely cute at the moment." Neji supplied, ignoring the light tinge of red on his cheeks.

Naruto smiled, and then leered. And still looked cute. "Awww. So Kiba-chan thought I looked cute eh? Finally realized your own instincts. I do have the hottest body around. Good boy. I'll give you a chew toy later." Kiba went to grumble in a corner.

Gaara shook his head and glared holes in the back of everyone's head. This caused them all to turn and look at him. Good. He didn't feel like clearing his throat or speaking to get their attention. He looked pointedly at Sasuke.

"Right. Well, Konoha would be pleased to secure an alliance with Suna. They would like for you to go there to draw up a contract, and sign it. I also have a report on the information you wanted regarding the market for glass in other countries." Sasuke fished for a scroll in his jacket and handed it to Gaara who put it on his desk.

"Thank you. I will travel to Konoha in two days time." Gaara replied and opened a drawer in his desk. He pulled out a pouch the size of the average human's head and handed it to Sasuke. He smirked.

"Pleasure doing business." Sasuke gave the pouch to Kakashi who put it in a bag he had been carrying.

"Now that the business is done, why don't you all stay for the night and dinner? You can leave in the morning." Temari said, throwing away her blood drenched tissues and headed out to door towards the kitchen. Sasuke was about to decline when he saw Naruto talking with Kiba. "Hn."

Gaara who was also fluent in grunts, took that as a yes and walked out the door.

"Food!!" Naruto, Chouji and Kiba yelled and the all bounded out the door after Temari. Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Heh. It will be a pleasure to spend more time with Naruto." Iruka smiled, and followed the group. Kakashi absentmindedly nodded in agreement. He was to busy following Iruka's ass. Sasuke shook his head and the rest of his crew followed him out the door. It was definitely an eventful day.


	5. Chapter 5

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Temari snickered to herself as she sat down at the dinning table. Everyone was situated and eating. She smirked at the seating arrangement. Gaara and Sasuke sat at the ends of the table, letting them have the perfect range to glare at each other. Why they didn't like each other so much, she would never know. Maybe it was to see who was the most emo-est or who could be the quietest and still talk the most. Oh well. But back to the seats. To Gaara's right was Naruto and across from him was Kankuro. Temari sat next to Naruto. Then Kiba, Shino, Sai, Iruka and Kakashi. Next to Kankuro were Chouji, Shikamaru and Lee. Sai was disappointed that he wasn't next to Naruto so he busied himself by pelting peas at Shikamaru when the lazy head started to doze off. Naruto was busy chatting with everyone.

"So Naruto, watcha gonna do now?" Kiba asked. He hoped that the blond would ask to stay with the Katon. Though he had only been with them for a week, it was weird not having the bundle of energy around.

Naruto cocked his head to the side. "Gaara is a nice person. After we met he tried to find out things about me and see if there was any way to help me." Naruto smiled and Gaara tilted his head. It was his way of showing he was flattered. "He found out the name of my father and was able to get his will. I now inherit his Galleon the Yondaime, along with other things."

Sasuke was thinking. Where had he heard the name 'Yondaime' before?

"Didn't the Yondaime belong to Namikaze Minato?" Iruka asked Kakashi and Naruto.

"Yep." Naruto grinned.

Kakashi was stunned. This was the son of his former captain? He thought that there was a resemblance but he never would have thought that the son of one of the most famous captains would be little Naru-chan. Gasps were heard around the room.

"You're the son of Minato? As in Yondaime Minato?" Kiba asked leaning closer to Naruto as if trying to prove him wrong.

"Yep."

"COOL!" Kiba said and proceeded to glomp Naruto.

"Did you know he was your father?" Iruka asked.

"Yes and no. I had a hunch, but when you've had a life like mine, it's pretty hard to believe in something like that." Naruto said, his voice wavered slightly.

"But you're the son of the Yondaime!! You should be shitting solid gold!" Kiba said.

The rest of the diners cringed at the comment and eyed their food with disgust. "Why were you left with some old dude? Weren't their people who knew you were his son?"

Naruto lowered his head and shoved food into his mouth. Sasuke noticed that Naruto kept his head down as he shoveled food into his mouth. Obviously he didn't want to talk about it. "Do you know Naru-chan?" Kiba pressed on. Naruto ignored him. Kiba was about to take the plate of food away from him when someone busted into the room.

"Baki? What is the meaning of this?" Gaara asked standing up and walking towards his best guard.

Baki, who apparently ran all the way to the mansion gasped and collected his breath. "Raid. Akatsuki. Searching. For. Something."

Naruto's eyes widened with fear. Gaara looked over at Naruto with concern. He then became confused when he saw the eyes light up with lust. Blood lust.

"They never give up. Time to go Gaara!" Naruto said and ran out of the room.

"Naruto?" Kiba called after him.

Naruto came back into the room only he had a sword at his left hip, two pistols attached to a leather strap that went from his right shoulder to his left hip and a pouch on his right hip. "Let's go get 'em" Naruto said. Kankuro wooped and ran out the room to get his weapons. Temari smirked and followed her brother's example. Gaara sighed and readied his gourd that he put to the side of his chair. He looked expectantly at the Katon crew. Sasuke quirked an eyebrow and looked at Kakashi.

"Alright guys. Time for some battle!" Kakashi ordered and they all pulled out a pistol or a dagger they had concealed on their bodies. Naruto smiled at this.

"Let's go!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Do you know how to use those things? I mean, we wouldn't want Naru-chan to hurt himself." Sai smiled as the group ran their way into the city.

"I am going to pretend you didn't say anything." Naruto growled. They had reached the center of the commotion. There were two figures clothed in black cloaks with red clouds. They both were pillaging the houses as they went then set them on fire. The streets were already littered with bodies and blood. Naruto's heart clenched at this. He ran head first into the tallest one, unsheathing his sword and took a huge swing at his enemy who pulled out his scythe and parried the attack.

"Eh Kakuzu. It's little Naru-chan." Hidan laughed.

"Take care of him. I think I see a chest in that window." Kakuzu replied and headed towards a particularly large house.

"Oi. You fucking bum. Help me here!" Hidan cursed. He really did need help. Naruto was a fast little devil. A very good fighter. He swiped his scythe trying to get at least a scratch on Naruto, who deftly dodged the weapon, weaving around Hidan and making an occasional slash at him.

"Whoa!" Kiba yelled.

"So Youthful!" Lee cried. Literally. He was so happy at that moment to see little Naru-chan taking on a strong opponent with ease.

Sasuke was speechless, but it wasn't like he talked much anyway. How did the idiot learn how to fight so well? Wait; why in the hell can he fight. He looks like he would break under one punch from that guy. Inner Sasuke was jumping for joy.

Naruto swung back when the scythe made its way towards his face. He was tired of this game and decided to go for the gold. He used his sword and pushed the scythe even further away. The momentum caused Hidan to slightly turn, giving Naruto enough time to run forth and stab him in the heart with his sword. Everyone watched in fascinated horror as Naruto took out his pistol and positioned it in the back of Hidan's head.

"This is for everything you put me through." Naruto whispered and pressed the trigger. The body fell limply to the ground. Naruto smirked and pulled his sword out from Hidan's corpse and wiped it on his cloak. He turned to look at his friends. They were all gaping like fish out of water.

"What?"

"Soo cool! And kawaii!!!" Temari screamed. Naruto looked at her with incredulity. He just killed a guy who tortured him, was three times his size, and older than him, and a known murderer and she was busy calling him cute?

"Impressive." Neji nodded his approval. Naruto grinned but suddenly turned to his left, throwing a dagger he kept concealed within his shirt. Kakuzu froze as the dagger missed him by a hair. And he literally meant that.

"Ah. You killed him? Silver bullets filled with mercury? Or was it an enchantment. Oooooh, or did you put chakra in it. Please. Tell me. I have been trying to get that guy to die for ever!" Kakuzu went on a little rant in which he explained how Hidan was shit. Naruto didn't reply. "You know as well as I do how glad I am to be rid of that nuisance. Never understood the value of a penny." At this Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Why are you here?"

"Ah. That. Well, we heard from some shark friends where you were." Naruto looked confused for a moment until he remembered the shark-like member of the Akatsuki, Kisame. That man had the uncanny ability to understand sharks. "And at the moment, Leader wants you. Sabaku would be helpful too." He added glaring at Gaara.

"Well, that's not happening." Naruto said from behind Kakuzu. While he was giving his little monologue, Naruto had sneaked up behind him and plunged his sword through one of his hearts. Kakuzu had five hearts due to many operations and jutsus. To kill Kakuzu, you needed to kill all five hearts. As Naruto was about to shoot another heart Kakuzu chuckled. "Ah ah ah Uzumaki. Aren't we forgetting something?" Kakuzu pulled himself off of the sword to turn to face Naruto. Naruto was wondering what was going on until he saw what Kakuzu held in his hand. He felt a pain in his chest, and his world went dark.

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	6. Chapter 6

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Sasuke was still in a daze. He stared at the wounded boy that was currently resting in the hammock in the surgeon's quarters. There was only one way to describe how Sasuke felt. 'What the fuck just happened?'. That's right. The great Sasuke Uchiha was finally stumped, puzzled, confused, and even worried. Uh, correction. Inner Sasuke was worried. Sasuke was just currently denying the existence of his inner self. But the point was, Naruto had suddenly blacked out when that creepy drag queen wannabe took out something from inside his pocket and pointed at Naruto. Then he fell to the ground. The drag queen did the same to Sabaku but by the time he pointed the thing at him, Gaara had already impaled 2 more hearts with some…dare he say it…sand molded to look like pikes. Yea. So not only are these creepy guys after Naruto and Gaara, but the creepy guys can suddenly send people into a coma, and on top of that, Gaara was over here killing people with sand? Oh, and did we forget that little Naru-ch…Naruto was a born assassin and was currently radiating a red glow? Wait…Naru-cha…Naruto was not glowing before.

"What the hell? Shino, explain this!" Sasuke ordered Shino to investigate the red glow.

Shino nodded, but as soon as he tried to touch Naruto, he jerked his hand back violently. He cradled his hand and examined it. He skin was now raw and red, as if he had just been burnt. In fact, he was burnt. He channeled chakra into his hand and tried to touch him again. The results were the same. He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion (not that you could see it) and studied the aura around Naruto. It was very potent; tangible even. He turned to tell Sasuke what he thought the glow was when Naruto started to convulse. His face twisted up in pain and his muscles knotted beneath his skin. Automatically Sasuke and Shino went to constrain him but they had to jerk back because their skin was burnt on contact.

"What the fuck? SABAKU!!" Sasuke yelled out of the door. Gaara was there in an instant and immediately moved towards Naruto. He moved to touch him.

"Don't you'll get burned." Shino warned. Gaara ignored him. As he touched Naruto, his hand was encased with sand that protected him from the aura. He put his hand on Naruto's forehead and mumbled something under his breath. Naruto gradually calmed, and his face went into a peaceful state. Gaara sighed and turned around to face his host.

"He should be calm for the moment. Don't touch him." He ordered as Shino inched towards the sleeping boy. Gaara started to walk out of the door but Sasuke stopped him.

"Explain yourself." Sasuke stood in front of the doorway. Gaara raised a very thin eyebrow at the boy who had the audacity to stand in his way. "I have nothing to explain. You want answers ask him." Gaara glared hard at the Uchiha. "I will. But tell me what you did." Sasuke was not letting the red head go until he got some answers. "There is nothing I can tell that won't reveal some of his secrets. Let. Me. Pass." Sasuke reluctantly moved from the doorway and gave a mock bow to Gaara. When the noble had left, Sasuke turned to Shino who was closely examining Naruto.

"What do you think that was?" Shino questioned not looking up from Naruto.

"Hn."

"Interesting that you should say that. I have my theories, but I will wait until our little cabin boy wakes up. It has been a long night." Shino sighed and walked out of the room. He would be first on watch for that night. Sasuke stared a little longer at the sleeping form and walked out the room, closing the door behind him.

"How is our Naru-chan?" Kankuro asked coming from the shadows. Seriously, he just popped out of no where.

Sasuke, who knows all the secrets when it comes to coming out of shadows "hn-ed" and walked away. Kankuro huffed and relayed the information to Temari. Since their brother was a frequent user of Grunt, they interpreted that specific grunt as a 'I really don't care to tell you, but if you must ask he is okay'. The two siblings sighed in relief and went below deck to sleep. They would visit their little Naru-chan in the morning.

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Blue eyes blinked themselves into focus as they took in their surroundings. 'Okay. I am in a hammock. And I hear waves, and the sea, and I smell salt…DAMN! I can't have been taken prisoner again. What happened to Gaara and them?' Naruto panicked and jumped out of the hammock, tangling himself in the process. He wrestled with the deadly opponent for a few minutes when someone busted into the room. Sasuke was just about to check up on Naruto when he heard the commotion. He stifled a chuckle as he spied the blonde tangled up in sheets and hanging upside-down by the waist in the hammock.

Naruto froze as he heard the chuckle, and his blood ran cold. 'Itachi?'. He looked up expecting the worse. Instead, he smiled. Sasuke was expecting the idiot to glare at him and say 'Stop chuckling bastard and help me'. What he wasn't expecting was to find an armful of idiot.

"Sasuke. Thank kami." Naruto mumbled into Sasuke's shirt. Sasuke wanted to throw Naruto off of him. But something was preventing him from doing it. And no, it wasn't because deep down inside he wanted the hug and needed it. It was because Naruto had him in a death grip so tight, it would be futile to try and escape.

"Idiot."

Naruto realized where he was and jumped off of Sasuke, smiling. "Is everyone okay?"

"Hn."

"Good." Naruto grinned and looked down at himself. "DAMN. WHY EVERY TIME I TURN AROUND I AM NOT WEARING PROPER CLOTHING?" Naruto ranted around the room screaming about how revealing Chouji's nightshirt was. "Where are the clothes I was wearing yesterday?"

"NARU-CHAN!!!!!"

Naruto turned his head towards the stampede that rushed into the room. It consisted of Temari, Kankuro, Sai, Kiba, Lee and Iruka. The rest of the crew came in at a milder pace.

"We're so glad your okay!" Kiba said patting the golden hair.

"Yea, you gave us a pretty good scare." Kankuro smiled as Naruto swatted at Kiba's hand.

"But your YOUTH persevered!" (do I actually have to name who said this?)

Naruto eyes watered at the thought of so many people caring for him. He had always been in a situation where you could trust no one, not even yourself. But you couldn't depend on anyone but yourself. He always slept with the worry over his head that his life could be thrown away in his sleep. Truthfully, in the past week he had known the Katon crew, was the best sleep he ever had.

"Awww. Naru-chan's crying." Kiba cooed.

"I'm not crying. It's just that you smell so bad my eyes are watering."

Silence engulfed the entire cabin.

"Why you little mmmphifkhfofdk!!" Lee's hand found Kiba's mouth.

"Well, it's nice to see that you are well and healthy." Shino came into the room and observed its patient. Naruto nodded.

"Now that we have that settled, where are my clothes? I feel very…vulnerable." Naruto scooted away from Sai who was gradually inching towards him.

"Got burned." Temari answered.

"When?"

"Don't you remember?"

Naruto looked confused.

"After you blacked out you…" Temari quieted when Gaara gave her a look. Naruto lowered his head, already guessing what had happened.

Sasuke had had enough of the beating around the bush game. "Okay idiot, tell us everything. And I mean everything." His look left no room for complaints. Naruto gave a labored sigh and looked up.

"Well then I should start from the beginning. Get comfy. It's a long story. But you asked for it." The crew settled down in the cabin and waited for Naruto to continue.

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Minato looked outside his window in despair. There was only one thing he could do now to save his village from the rampaging demon. He turned to his subordinate.

"Kakashi. I want you to go and tell the men to retreat."

Kakashi looked at his teacher in confusion. Minato sighed.

"I know a way to get rid of the demon. Tell the men to retreat. That's an order."

Kakashi nodded, but he wasn't a fool. He knew what was going to happen. His master would sacrifice his life. "Are you going to use _that_ technique?"

"Yes."

"But, there aren't any new born babies today. What are you going to do?"

"My son is now six months old. Though the procedure usually requires a new born baby to contain the demon, a child with a very high chakra level would suffice as well. Of course that would put more of a strain on me and the child, but it is better than nothing at this point." Minato gave a sad smile out of the window of his office. "And besides, I think if there is anyone who would be able to make such a dramatic situation work, it would be Naruto." Kakashi smiled. He knew the infant very well. Though Naruto was only six months, he brought joy into everyone's lives. He smiled at everyone, never fussed, and was very loud. He had even begun to crawl. But what amazed most people was that Naruto was already able to use some of his chakra. He would be able to mold some into his knees and hands when he crawled so he moved faster. It was very, very rare for a baby to do such a thing. It was rare to find those who had good enough chakra control. Only 25% of the world's population was able to use chakra in everyday things such as propelling themselves forward when they were running or even climbing walls. Only 5% of that 25% was able to use chakra and mold it to perform jutsus and higher level tasks. It was the signs of a prodigy. A genius. There was no doubt in Kakashi's mind, that Naruto would be able to contain the demon.

"Kakashi. Go now." Kakashi gave a final look at his teacher, captain, and friend. This man had taught him how to be a pirate, a warrior, and a man. He couldn't resist himself when he lunged into the arms of Minato. Minato smiled gently down at him, and squeezed back.

"Don't worry Kakashi. I am sure you will be a fine man. Now go, before you make me cry, and knowing you, you would tell others that the great Noble Man Namikaze Minato cried." He pushed Kakashi towards the door. "I will always remember you. Now go."

Kakashi nodded and ran to tell the others to retreat. He tried to curb his emotions but it wasn't enough. Minato was like a father to him. He had been there for him no matter what. Kakashi was always there for Minato also. He remembered being there the moment Minato announced he was going to be a father. He remembered when Minato explained he would quit piracy and settle down to raise a family. He remembered the tears of joy coming to Minato's eyes when he announced he would stay with him. He remembered comforting his teacher when he mourned the loss of his wife, and was there when Naruto shed a light through the gloom. Minato had a full life. And he would be a hero for everyone.

As Kakashi rounded up the last of the men, he turned to see a yellow blur moving towards the center of the chaos. 'Fare well and farewell Minato.'

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Kakashi was silent throughout the whole tale. How could he forget something so important? How could he forget about his own teacher's son? Gaara looked at him in disgust.

"How could you forget Naruto?" He growled and approached the silver-haired man.

"It's not his fault Gaara." Naruto said. Gaara ignored this and continued to advance towards Kakashi. Iruka stood up before him. "What do you mean Naruto?" Iruka questioned staring hard into the teal eyes. He could tell Kakashi was already burying himself in guilt. He didn't need it to be rubbed in.

"Kyuubi."

Gaara turned at this.

"What do you mean?"

"I can talk to him." Gasps were heard throughout the room. "He was constantly trying to find a way out. He knew that if he was contained, it would be near to impossible to escape. So he did something right before my father cast the jutsu. Kakashi. Do you remember anything after you rounded up the men?"

Kakashi thought about this for a moment, and then shook his head negative.

"Kyuubi would have a better chance to escape from an infant if it was weak and vulnerable. Near dying. He would use his chakra to keep me alive. While doing this, he would gradually integrate himself into my chakra system, eventually taking over me. He would be able to be free again. If he were to just force his chakra into me without any need for it, it would kill me. It would be an overload of chakra, and he would die along with me. To make sure that I would be in a position when I was weak and vulnerable, he would make it so people would forget me. He cast a quick jutsu over a wide range. It was one of the few jutsu's he could do. It was basically very potent chakra that would dull the senses for a certain period of time. So basically, you would be walking around in a daze, not knowing what the hell was going on. And you would only remember the events prior to the jutsu. So what happened was you wouldn't have even remembered me. He hoped that by the time everyone figured out I was missing or alive or whatever I was supposed to be, he would have had a chance to take over my muscles and move me somewhere where I wouldn't be discovered. But that didn't happen. For some reason, our chakras wouldn't mix at first." Naruto explained. "So, I couldn't move."

"You had to. I searched the site. You were gone. I thought you were dead." Kakashi whispered. He longed to hug the boy who he thought dead for years.

"Well that can be explained too."

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A lone figure stood in the clearing that was littered with dead bodies, debris, and only one other life form. Sarutobi picked up the infant with gentle arms. His student had done a very rash thing, but it was the only thing that could have been done to save the village.

"Well Naruto, it looks like you will be living with me for a while." He cooed to the sleeping child. Sarutobi had stayed to watch his student when Kakashi told the men to retreat. He would be there for Minato in case he needed help. He had seen the jutsu the demon was about to perform before, so he cast a temporary sleeping justu on himself to avoid it. When he awoke he panicked and looked towards the area of the battle between Minato and Kyuubi. 'I have to find Naruto'. Sarutobi had searched the site with increasing misery and worry until he saw a little flash of gold. He had found Naruto.

Sarutobi stood in the clearing of the battle and thought for a minute, gently rocking Naruto as he did so. Would he stay in the village and let Naruto be raised there? Or should he go somewhere else and raise Naruto, so he would have a fresh start over? As Sarutobi pondered this, he didn't notice a figure approaching him.

"So Minato used that jutsu?" Tsuzuna asked.

Sarutobi nodded at his fellow warrior, friend, and pirate.

"So are you going to kill it?"

Sarutobi faltered. Did his friend just ask him if he was going to kill Naruto?

"No. Why would I?" Sarutobi started to back away cautiously from his friend as Tsuzuna looked at Naruto with hate. Why would he do that? Tsuzuna had held Naruto before.

"You can't let that…that THING live!" with a cry Tsuzuna lunged at the baby but Sarutobi, despite his old age, was too fast. Just as soon as Tsuzuna was a hairbreadth away from Naruto, Sarutobi plunged his dagger right into his ex-friends heart. Blood splattered and landed on Naruto's face as he witnessed the first death in his life. Sadly, it would be far from the last. Sarutobi heaved the dagger out of the flesh and watched as the body fell limply to the side. The actions of his friend convinced Sarutobi that if would not be safe to raise Naruto in such a village. He would go somewhere else, where Naruto can be normal, and not ever have to deal with being unloved.

He gathered chakra into his feet and leaped up into a tree, bounding north intent on traveling to Whirlpool country, the land of Naruto's mother. As soon as he left the clearing, Kakashi approached it. He frantically searched for the son of his teacher, and when his naked eye couldn't find it, he resorted to focus chakra into his eye which held the Sharingan, a special blood line trait that allowed the users to see chakra, copy movements of their opponents and have enhanced vision. When he found no traces of Naruto's chakra, he bowed his head in dismay, sunk to his knees and sobbed silently. That was how Iruka found him.

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Iruka gave Kakashi a comforting squeeze. He wanted to assure his overly perverted friend/stalker that it wasn't his fault that he couldn't find Naruto. Iruka grinned up at Naruto, who was now at Kakashi's side hugging him with fierce emotion. Kakashi responded and hugged the boy back.

Everyone was silent. They had just found the Kyuubi container. They all had thought that Kyuubi was a myth, and if not, they had never even thought about meeting the person who housed such a great and powerful demon. Sasuke stared at Naruto for a while trying to make sense out of what was said. Now Sasuke may look like a complicated person, but when you get into his head it is easy to see how he thinks.

Sasuke's Thoughts

Naruto has a demon in him

The demon is Kyuubi

Kakashi knows Naruto

Namikaze Minato is Naruto's father

Who is watching the helm?

Now wasn't that interesting? Anyway, Sasuke tried to figure out how this news affected him and his crew. And also, he realized as Naruto was chatting with Kakashi about something totally off topic, that he hadn't answered all of his questions.

"Idiot."

Naruto turned his head towards Sasuke, eyes narrowed. 'Please don't tell me he doesn't want me around anymore cuz of Kyuubi. I have had enough of shit in my life.' Naruto's insides were wrought with nerves, but his appearance showed defiance and curiosity.

"So why were those people after you?"

Naruto cocked his head to the sighed. A few squeals ensued; Temari and Sai. Naruto's face lit up in remembrance.

"Ah. You mean the wanna be drag queens?" Everyone accept the stoics (Sasuke, Shino, Gaara, Neji) laughed.

"Hn."

"Well, they are part of Akatsuki. They are more like bounty hunters than pirates. They are trying to collect all of the containers of the tailed-demons so that they can take over the world. Remember when I told you Itachi only bitched and moaned about that stuff? Yeah well, that was what it was about. Aside from the few times I heard him complaining to his mirror about the wrinkles on his face." Naruto snickered.

Sasuke thought. His brother was a very vain person; it was not surprising he would be bitching to himself about the wrinkles.

"Ah that reminds me. Is the reason why he sometimes muttered your name under his breath was because you're not wrinkly?" Naruto asked his eyes wide.

Sasuke wanted to laugh along with the rest of his crew, but refrained. He was stoic and an Uchiha. Inner Sasuke was shouting with indignation at being forced to repress his joy.

"Hn."

Naruto grinned at him and turned back to Kakashi and Iruka. He had come to look at them as father figures the past week, and they accepted him gladly. Because of this, Naruto's worries about being rejected from the crew flew out of his mind.

"Naruto? If Akatsuki had you why didn't they just take the demon and kill you?"

"Damn you Sai. Only you can say something like that to a person." Naruto was itching to attach his hands to Sai's jugular and let hell break loose. Sai merely smiled.

"Because Kyuubi didn't want to do it. Normally, they can extract the demon from the container and store it. But the underestimated the bond between Kyuubi and I. I know it sounds weird for a demon and human to get along, but Kyuubi has been there my whole life, easing my pain and annoying me and pestering me and other things to keep me sane. Akatsuki tried to extract him, but Kyuubi always forced out so much chakra from my body that it would disrupt their jutsu. They would have to weaken me in order to perform the jutsu so I wouldn't be able to fight back. But they didn't dare do that to a person with a demon, and a high chakra level. Even with the use of the medallion it would be hard to fight and suppress a full raging demon, with added chakra from a human with high chakra levels as well. They were planning to do it when they had other demons in control so they could weaken me. It just so happened we were attacked by the Kyuubi and I got away before they could do that. So they kept me locked away and stuff until then." Naruto said all of that within two breaths. "Does that satisfy you?" Naruto glared at Sai. Sai nodded curtly and pretended to observe his nails.

"Hah. So you hold Kyuubi, and Kyuubi took you." Kiba laughed at the joke only he found funny.

"So why are you here?" Naruto asked looking at the Sand Siblings.

"Well, Gaara has Shukaku in him, and we thought it best to tag along. Plus we didn't want you to be in danger." Kankuro explained.

"Wait, you have a demon in you too?" Kiba asked. Sasuke looked at Gaara.

"Yep. He has the one tailed demon, Shukaku. It allows him to control sand. But he can't sleep as easily as I can. Why do you think he was called Gaara of the Desert?" Naruto stated. Everyone nodded in agreement.

Sasuke processed this information and nodded to himself with a pained look. Naruto saw this and thought that he was about to be told off. He was putting the crew in danger. Actually Sasuke was thinking about finding someone to watch the helm. He still wanted to talk to Naruto. He was respectful enough to leave Kakashi and Iruka with Naruto since they seemed comfortable. Sai would end up playing with the helm or constantly sneaking off to find Naruto. Chouji didn't do the helm thing, neither did Shino. Neji could do it, but that would mean admitting Neji was good at something. Despite the fact that they were close friends, Sasuke didn't like to admit that Neji was good at something. It made himself seem inferior. Lee would end up crashing the boat, and the Sand siblings were out of the question. That left Kiba, who was a surprisingly good helmsman and navigator, but he also had a short attention span. At this, Sasuke had a pained look.

"Um. Would it be okay if you dropped me off somewhere. Preferably not in the ocean." Naruto added that last part when he saw Kankuro open his mouth.

"Why?" Iruka asked patting Naruto's shoulder.

"I am bringing danger to you guys. It would be best if I wasn't with you." Naruto bowed his head.

"Hn. Idiot."

"What was that bastard?" Naruto lifted his head to glare at the raven.

"You're stuck with us." Kiba grinned pouncing on Naruto.

"Yep. You are one of us." Iruka smiled.

"Our beloved uke cabin boy!" Sai was hit in the head with a shoe Naruto found on the floor.

"And even if you were to leave, Akatsuki would find us looking for you. So we would be in danger anyway. And then Naru-chan would be by himself which wouldn't be good." Kakashi hugged Naruto who returned it.

Naruto was about to burst into tears. They had basically said that he was a part of their family.

"You are family now." Iruka whispered and Naruto nodded, tears sliding down his face. Temari cooed and embraced Naruto in a sisterly fashion. Sasuke was overwhelmed with the amount of emotions floating around in the room. Inner Sasuke was jumping up and down, rivers of tears flowing down his face in elation. Sasuke envisioned a cannon blowing a whole in Inner Sasuke's stomach.

"Oi. How come you always cry when something good is happening?" Kiba and Sai asked. A fist came flying towards their faces, which was odd since Naruto was at least 5 feet away from them.

Naruto who was now being smothered by Temari, Kakashi, Iruka, Sai and Lee, was beginning to lose feeling…in his entire body. So when he tried to speak he couldn't so he did his best to shimmy out of the human barricade. Unfortunately that led to-

"SOOOOO CUUUUUUUUTE!!!" Temari screamed when she saw Naruto.

Kankuro was laughing while Iurka's eye was twitching. Sai was holding in a nose bleed, and Shikamaru muttered the first syllable to 'troublesome' before he began to blush heavily. Gaara's face was impassive, as was the rest of the crew, as he covered Naruto with his sand. That's right kids. Naruto shimmied right out of his nightshirt, revealing…everything.

"SEE. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS, WHEN PEOPLE FEEL THE NEED TO UNDRESS ME!!!" Naruto yelled, ducking behind Gaara who wrapped him up protectively in his sand.

"Take it off, take it ooooff!" Kiba joked. Naruto blushed.

"Come on Naruto, I am sure I can sew something to fit your needs." Temari said and she along with Gaara and Naruto out the room to go and hunt for some clothes.

The people who were still in the room stared at each other in astonishment.

"Well, it looks like we have a bigger family." Kakashi sighed as if it were a burden, but truthfully he was overjoyed. He had found Naruto, and he would try his hardest to make sure from now on Naruto had a life that he should have had, the life he deserved.

"Yep." Sai yelled and ran out the room to try and find Naruto. He had some clothing suggestions for the bishounen.

"Don't you dare go and peak on Naruto!" Iruka yelled trailing after him. Kakashi followed dutifully. He had to make sure Naruto wasn't molested, and that Iruka's ass still looked at good as it did two seconds ago.

"Hn. Kiba, take the helm." Sasuke ordered and walked to his quarters.

Kiba shrieked with joy and ran towards the big wheel. Neji sighed and when to his position in the crows nest, while Chouji went to the kitchen. Lee went to polish his guns and Shikamaru…was sleeping on the floor.


	7. Chapter 7

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"I hope you know that you will be expected to take up our position of cabin boy once more." Sasuke informed Naruto over dinner. The newly sized crew was sitting in a circle on the deck. It had just reached twilight and the crew was sitting down to a nice stew medley by their wonderful chef. Naruto's clothing problem had been solved thanks to the lovely Temari. She had taken all of the extra clothes she could find, washed them much to Naruto's happiness, and made a few creations that Naruto would enjoy. He now sported a pair of dark brown cotton kapris, and a light blue shirt that was actually Temari's, so it showed off his figure nicely, accenting the curve in his hips and his supple, thin waist. That meant of course that Sai was sitting right next to him.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Just as long as I don't have to wash anymore underwear." Naruto said distractedly. He was busy enjoying his meal. Sasuke grunted to himself and continued to eat.

"So captain, where to next?" Kankuro mock saluted Sasuke.

"Oi, that reminds me. What exactly do you do? You never told me the specifics since you called me a 'A temporary addition to the idiocracy that is your crew'". Naruto said once he had finished shoveling food into his mouth.

"Well, we are pirates. We do the occasional pillaging, but we never kill unless ordered to, nor do we take from those who don't deserve it. Basically, we spend periods of time in a certain place, looking for corruption and then dealing with accordingly by stealing and/or maiming them." Sai said. Iruka shot him a glare.

"Don't listen to him Naruto. We aren't like that. We are sort of informant among many people. We can be classified as spies. We are hired by clients to do whatever they want, and if we see fit to follow their requests then we take on the job. When we are between clients, which is rare since we are efficient, we stay in villages raiding the corrupt rich. We are a very political group." Iruka smiled at Naruto who returned it.

"But since Sasuke wants to keep up his name, we go around killing people, stealing their money, and kidnapping fair youths such as this one right Sasuke." Kakashi's one visible twinkled with mirth as he pointed to Naruto. Sasuke snorted at his comment and returned to his meal.

"So, where are we going?" Kankuro asked once again.

"We are actually going to Fire Country, courtesy of your brother." Neji answered.

Naruto was really getting annoyed with the fact that Sasuke never said anything. Everyone answered for him. 'I guess Sasuke is only fluent in grunts. Talking like normal people might be a little challenging for him.' Naruto snickered to himself scaring everyone. The light was cast upon him in such a way that he was glowing red, and the random snickering added to the slightly evil effect. Sai and Kiba edged away from him.

"So now Gaara is going to Konoha to sign a treaty that would ensure an alliance between Suna and Konoha. And then from there in a nearby village we have another client that awaits us." Kakashi explained. Naruto paled at the thought of going back to Konoha. He had been their before with the Kyuubi crew, and it was not pleasant. But he shook the feeling off, thinking that since he started a new life and that everything would start fresh. Naruto grinned at everyone and felt happiness swell within him.

~Aw kit. Why is it so warm in here? And mushy? I swear I can see little hearts floating around.~

-Kyuubi?-

~No.~

-KYUUBI?-

~Heh. Sorry kid. But what's going on?~

-You mean to tell me you have been sleeping all this time?-

~……Pretty much yeah.~

-ARGHHH! Look at my memories your damn self. There's no way in hell I am repeating everything. I was wondering why you have been so quiet.-

~Yeah. I needed some rest. I had to keep us alive. You know you were drowning when the ship was attacked. I had to release some chakra to make you float. Then we were attacked by Akatsuki and I had to keep us alive~

-Thanks. But that doesn't mean you get to sleep whenever you want.-

~Actually it does. Now go to sleep. It is easier to look at your memories without you commenting on them.~

-What. I do not comment on them!-

~Actually you do. Remember when I told you about your history? You had to say something or ask something every 5 seconds.~

-Shut up! Fine, I'll be going to bed soon.-

~Good. Oh, and I wanted to tell you something.~

-What?-

~Let me think. I wanted to tell you earlier before, but then I fell asleep and forgot.~

-Thanks Kyuu. But you know what would be really helpful? If you were to tell me now!-

~Ahh that's right. It happened when you were crying. And not the good type of crying. The bad type.~

-Kyuu!-

~I wanted to tell you that you're safe with these people. They are all chakra users. Very high level ones in fact. They all can protect themselves. Extremely well. So your in safe hands, so please stop being so…angsty? I hate it when you do that. Then you sulk in your mind all day and I have to hear your thoughts echoing within this empty shell you call a skull.~

The rest of the crew watched in fascination as Naruto's eyes glazed over and his face went through a series of emotions.

"What is he doing? Why isn't he moving. Did something happen to him? Oh my god, he's possessed. I knew there was something wrong with him. Why else would he faint? Gah. Naru-chan?" Kiba asked frantically poking Naruto's side.

"Don't worry. He is talking to Kyuubi. Shukaku tells me he has been sleeping since his presence was faint." Gaara explained. Everyone 'oh-ed' continued to watch Naruto. Kiba was still worried. He didn't want Naru-chan hurt. Naruto slowly came out of his conversation with Kyuubi to find everyone staring intently at him. Now much like anyone coming out of a deep sleep or a trance, they follow the first instincts that come to their mind.

"PERVERTS!" Naruto screamed, blushed and ducked behind Iruka who patted him on the back fondly.

"Thank you!" Sai and Kakashi chimed in. That earned them each a smack from one flushing blond and one raging Iruka.

Naruto glared hard at Sai and Kakashi and looked at everyone. They each were casting him worried looks.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Naruto wiped his mouth with the back of his hand a couple times.

"You were talking to Kyuubi. They freaked." Gaara smirked. Yep, Gaara stoic #1 actually made a facial expression. You could see the corners of his lips twitch up for a millisecond.

"Oh." Naruto shrugged and went back to eating.

"What do you mean 'oh'? Every time I turn around you are fainting!" Kiba yelled at Naruto.

"I do not faint! I have only done that twice you idiot!" Naruto yelled back.

"So? That was two to many. When have you seen me faint?"

"I saw you have a nosebleed twice."

"That's not the same!"

"Yes it is."

"Not it's not!"

"Fine, your right. It's not the same because your nosebleeds indicate what a horny dog you are. PERVERT!!"

Kiba reddened and huffed, turning away. Naruto grinned triumphantly and continued eating.

"Kiba's right. We can't have you fainting on us." Shino said from across Naruto.

"For the last time. I. Don't. Faint. I was drained of power from Kakuzu, and now I was in a trance." Naruto stuck his fork into his food harshly on every syllable.

"Actually you woke up thrice since you have been back on board. Every time you woke up, a minute later you fainted." Shino went on.

"I was drained." Naruto replied.

"Why?" Lee asked.

"Why what?"

"Why were you drained?" Everyone wanted to know why Naruto suddenly collapsed during the fight.

"Oh. Well, he had the medallion." Naruto stated as if everyone knew what it was. Naruto realized everyone was clueless and decided to elaborate.

"You mentioned something about a medallion earlier." Chouji said in between bites of stew.

"Each of the tailed demons has their own medallion that has control over them. Now each medallion comes in two parts. They come in different shapes. The outer part which is the larger shape is made out of a metal, and the inner shape is a solid jewel. The outer portion of the medallion controls the body of the container. The inner portion controls the mind. They can be split up in two. It seems that Kakuzu had the inner portion of my medallion, which was why I fainted. I wonder how he got it too. If he had both then I would have definitely be dead right now. Kyuubi was weak from keeping us alive. I've only just gone back to my normal chakra level." Naruto thought aloud as if he were discussing the weather. "I wonder if they have both parts. They might, and gave each piece to two teams in case they ran into me. Wonder where they got it."

"What does your medallion look like?" Chouji asked looking at Naruto and Gaara.

"I contain the one-tailed demon. My shape is a pyramid. The outer part is gold and the inner is ruby." Gaara said pulling out his medallion. He kept it on his person always. Everyone stared in wonder and the beautiful jewel before them.

"How did you get it?" Sai asked.

"Well that is complicated. When the demon is contained in a child, they know if it was a successful sealing if a light shines on the child's chest. Then the medallion forms. The medallion is used to control the demon. Wow. Not that complicated." Naruto asked.

"Yes it is. Your case was." Gaara looked pointedly at Naruto.

"Right. Since I wasn't a new born, mine didn't appear. I only know that I have one, and what it looks like because Itachi flaunted it in front of my face at times." Naruto grimaced at the memories of the reasons 'why' Itachi flaunted it. "The medallions give the containers relief when they are in pain because the chakra of the demon is too much. Or they help channel chakra to specific places if you were too weak that even your demon could not help you. It absorbs chakra from the surroundings and channels it into your bodies."

"So what does yours look like?"

"I hold the leader of the demons, so my outer part is a mixture of platinum, silver and gold. My inner part is made up of two shades of sapphire stone. The shape is a circle." Naruto said.

"Wow. It sounds so pretty!" Temari exclaimed.

"So that is why I fainted." Naruto finished his story with a flourish of his hand. "Satisfy you?"

"Hn."

"BASTARD!!!"

Everyone chuckled at the blond's attempts to throw the eating utensils at Sasuke who dodged them with ease. Soon Naruto realized that his attempt at murder was futile and gave up. Kiba opened his mouth. He had another question.

"No more questions. Wait till tomorrow. I'll wake up early to wash the dishes. Tired." Naruto yawned and went under deck to his little pallet so he could sleep.

"How did he know that?" Kiba asked astonished.

"You always have questions." Neji said his theory as if it were written in the stars.

"Shut up pretty boy."

"Stop it you two. What was your question?" Temari chided.

"How did he learn how to fight?"

"Ooooh. Good question. We have to ask later." Temari nodded in approval at the question. It was a good one. Since Naruto was shackled up all the time, it is a wonder how he ever learned how to fight.

"Lee first watch. Neji second." Sasuke ordered and made his way to the helm.

Groans were heard, the clanking of pots made an orchestra of noise and people went to their beds.

"No talking." Neji ordered. Kiba clapped his mouth shut and wondered how the boy had known. It was dark and he was facing the wall. He shook his head and laid down, determined to sleep and forget about the creepiness that is Neji.

"You know by telling him to stay, we are now put in a compromising position." Sasuke said as Kakashi and Iruka walked past him.

"Wouldn't have it any other way." Kakashi grinned and tugged Iruka down to his room.

Sasuke looked around discreetly and allowed himself a little chuckle. Well, at least Inner Sasuke did. He too, wouldn't have preferred their situation any other way.

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	8. Chapter 8

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"So, um, do I have to go with you?" Naruto asked with pleading eyes.

"Yes idiot. You have to." Sasuke replied with a slight irritated tone.

"But why? I am only the cabin boy. I don't do anything important, so why would you need me now?" Naruto whined. Sasuke shot Naruto a harsh glare.

"Come on Naru-chan. It will be fun. I'll treat you to ramen." Kiba said pulling on the blond's hand.

'Damn it. He exploited my weakness.' Naruto was currently terrified at the moment. They had reached the port in Konoha a few minutes ago, and they were to transport Gaara and his siblings to the leader of the village, the Hokage. Now the problem was that Naruto didn't have fond memories of the village. He shivered at the thought of his last visit there. He really didn't want to relive the memories. He shook off these thoughts when Temari gave him a reassuring smile.

"Come on Naru-chan. It will be fun!"

Naruto sighed and followed the rest of the crew. They reached the gates of Konoha and there were two guards waiting for them.

"Name and business." Said one of the guards.

"Sasuke Uchiha, captain of the Katon. I am here to escort the noble Gaara and his siblings to the Hokage." Sasuke replied coolly.

"Fine." The other one muttered and let them pass. But just as soon as Naruto made it past the gate, a knife was at his throat.

"You look familiar." One of the guards said.

Naruto just shook his head and tried to struggle away.

"Yea. Blond hair, blue eyes."

"Like Namikaze!"

"You're his son!" The guard pressed the knife closer to his throat.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be dead?" The first guard spat at him.

"What the hell do you think your doing?" Kiba yelled at the guard…who was paying him no mind.

"Did you actually think that we would let something like you back into our village demon? You were lucky to get away once with your life. I will not have that repeated." The guard spoke with a nasty tone, occasionally making swipes with his knife against Naruto's throat, drawing thin slivers of blood.

"Let him go." Sasuke said in a low voice. Again, the guards weren't paying attention.

"So are you now their whore, demon? I will never forgive you for what you did to our village. Now, it's time for your death!" the guard lifted his arm to stab Naruto deep, but that was a mistake. As his hand was coming down, something embraced it, squeezed, and crushed his hand.

"I told you to let him go." Sasuke sneered, releasing the hand and pushing the guard off Naruto.

"I will report you to Hokage-sama for this insolence!" The guard was nursing his hand while his partner ran off into the direction of the Hokage tower.

"I hardly think threatening an innocent is insolence." Neji stated helping Naruto up.

"How could you protect that demon?! Do you know what he did to this village?" the man cried.

"No. And I do not care." Sasuke sniffed and turned away.

Neji, who was holding Naruto, noticed the lack of response from the smaller boy.

"Naruto?" He asked with worried eyes.

Naruto was just staring blankly. Neji waved his hand in front of the blue eyes, and started back when he noticed a single tear slide down the tan cheek.

"He's right." Naruto whispered.

Shino, Iruka and Temari gathered around Naruto, who was steadily crying.

"I don't deserve it." Naruto whimpered and collapsed onto the ground sobbing.

"NARUTO!" Sasuke yelled starting towards the boy; but it was no use. He was already gone.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~Kit!~

-What?-

~Wake up. Everyone is worried about you?~

Naruto wasn't listening to the demon. He was currently reliving the memories he had when he first visited Konoha. He was a monster. A demon.

~Kit. STOP! You're hurting yourself!"~ Try as he might, Kyuubi wasn't able to get Naruto to listen as he huddled up in a ball, head between his knees, torturing himself.

~Kit. If you don't do something, I will.~

Naruto still didn't respond.

~Fine. It will be good to have a little freedom.~

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"I think he's coming to!" Lee squealed.

"Stop being so loud Lee." Another voice scolded.

Blue eyes opened to find themselves looking at a circle of people, two who were vaguely familiar. But there was a problem. The blue eyes had slits for pupils.

"Naruto, what's with your eyes?" Chouji asked.

"Back off tubby!" Naruto answered in a gruff voice.

"WHAT??" Chouji immediately launched to attack Naruto, when a voice stopped him.

"Stop Chouji. That's not Naruto." A woman with a very ample bosom and honey brown eyes ordered.

"Huh?" Everyone (except the stoics of course) questioned.

Blue eyes squinted. "A pleasure to see you again Tsunade."

"Like hell it is. Where's Naruto?" Tsunade roared.

"Where is he?" Sai asked.

"Who is that?" Iruka said.

"That's Kyuubi. Naruto's currently deep in his conscious." Shikamaru answered. They blinked at him, wondering when he had woken up and why he knew that. Did he like…have super natural powers?

Everyone blinked for a minute until realization dawned on them. They immediately backed away, save Tsunade, the Sand siblings, Sasuke, Kakashi, Iruka and another person who had yet to be introduced. But for the record, she had very pink hair.

"Ah, don't worry. I won't hurt you." Kyuubi said sitting up on the bed he was lying on.

"Or more like you can't." Tsunade smirked.

"Damn brat. He softened me up. And it's not because I can't. I choose not to. Don't mock me human!" He snapped at Tsunade when he saw her mimicking his words. "Do you know who I am? I am Kyuubi, lord of all demons, now forced to live amongst you filth."

"Right. So how is he?" The pink haired girl asked.

"Right now, he is reliving some bad memories. You should have let him stay on the ship Uchiha."

Sasuke glared at the demon, and pointed his nose in the air in defiance. Kyuubi growled.

"So do you know when he will wake up?" the pink haired girl asked.

Kyuubi squinted at her until recognition dawned on him. "Sakura. Yes, he will wake up soon. But he will be a little shaky and vulnerable. Don't do anything stupid to shut him down. If you do, I will make sure that you wished you valued your lives a little bit more."

"What does that mean?" Kankuro asked, hand reaching for his sword, though he knew he wouldn't hurt Naruto's body.

"Don't hurt him or try and pry answers from him and you won't have to worry about what it means." Kyuubi smiled menacing then closed his eyes and flopped back onto the bed. Sakura reached for him and jerked back when the eyes opened, except this time the pupils were round and full.

"Sakura?" Naruto asked. Sakura nodded, and didn't even stumble when he threw his full wait onto her. He sobbed into her shoulder and she petted him on the back in a loving motherly/sisterly fashion.

"Shh, it's okay now."

Everyone watched as the ever energetic boy broke down in front of Sakura.

"Shh. Now I will give you something to help you sleep, and then later I will wake you up to feed you." Tsunade said relieving Sakura from him and giving him her own hug. He sniffled, but laid down as she put her hand to his head and focused chakra over it. Within a few moments, he was out into a dreamless sleep.

"Come with me to my other room, and we will discuss things there." Tsunade whispered and led the way back to her official office while Naruto rested in her bedroom. She watched at the youngsters made themselves comfortable in the room as she sat down at her desk with Sakura beside her.

"Now, as you should all know by now I am the hokage of this village Tsunade. This is my subordinate Sakura, whom you all grew up with."

"Hi!" Sakura beamed smiling at the people she grew up with. They smiled back, with of course the exception of the stoics.

"SAKURA. Such a lovely name for such a delicate flower!" Lee pranced over to Sakura and giving her a gracious but strong bow. She blushed and gave a little curtsey as Iruka pulled Lee back to their side by his ear. They went through this every time they visited.

"Lee, you say that every time we see each other."

"Okay." Tsunade said slowly casting a strange glance to Lee. 'They just get weirder by the minute. I wonder if this kid will visit Gai. Kami that would be a sight to see.'

"Now, I want to know all the details. Since you found Naruto, until now. Begin."

Everyone relayed the story adding in parts that another might forget until Tsunade had enough information to write a volume of books entitled 'Life With Naruto on the Katon: Part 1'.

"Okay. So this is the first time he has blacked out on his own will?" She asked.

"Technically yes. He blacked out before, but that was because his powers were drained." Shino answered.

Tsunade nodded her head at this.

"Hokage-sama, if you don't mind me asking, what happened? Why was Naruto attacked I mean?" Iruka asked.

The woman smiled fondly at him. Iruka had grown up in Konoha along with Kakashi, but they have been traveling for the past few years, so they weren't exactly up to date with the current news. Same with the rest of the crew, excluding the Sand siblings who were born in Suna. Everyone else was natives to Konoha, and had grown up around each other until they parted separate ways.

"Well, I am not sure if we should tell you that." Sakura said uneasily.

"Please. Naruto is part of our family now, and we would really like to know what is troubling him. We would like to help." Kakashi pleaded. Okay he didn't plea, but he sort of ordered/asked.

"Well…" Sakura cast a glance at Tsunade who merely nodded. "It happened 5 years ago, when Naruto had come to the village for a second time. The first time being when he was born."

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Sakura smiled looking out of her window. It was a beautiful day in Konoha. The birds were singing, the sky was cloudless, and a soft breeze blew, gentle enough to cool the skin under the hot sun. Sakura looked into her mirror, making sure her image was perfect, said good bye to her mom, and left to the Hokage Tower. She would be working with her mentor today on how to heal crushed bones. She knew how to mend broken or snapped bones, but crushed bones were another subject all together. She would have to mold her chakra to small thin slivers so it could reach all the pieces of bones and start to mend them.

She waved to her close friends Hinata and Ino as she passed them in the flower shop. 'I wonder if Hinata is getting flowers for Kiba. Even though he isn't here, she always buys flowers and gives them to his family on his birthday. Sooooo sweet.' She blushed as she thought about her own infatuation with a certain energetic green beast of Konoha. NO! Not GAI!! The cuter one Lee! She came out of her thoughts when she noticed she was in front of the Hokage Tower. But there was a commotion surrounding it. Pirates were crowding around it demanding entrance. She pushed through the crowd, nodding at Izumo who allowed her to pass, enraging the rest of the men. She ran to her teacher's office and flung open the door, demanding what was going on, but what she saw made her stop.

Tsunade was standing in front of her desk glaring at a man she knew to be Sasuke's older brother, Itachi. He was surrounded with who she took to be his crew. However the thing that caught her eye the most was the chain Itachi was holding it. Attached to it was a boy, about her age. His neck, hands, and legs were shackled. He was small and petite, definitely feminine. He had blonde hair that was full of dirt so it was dulled to a dirty blond. His clothes (if you could call half a shirt and ripped pants clothes) were tattered and torn. His eyes were downcast so she didn't know the color.

"Sakura." Tsunade looked at her.

"Yes?"

"Take Naruto to my room and clean him up." She pointed towards the chained boy.

"I'd rather keep my pet on a leash where I can control him." Itachi answered glaring at Sakura when she moved to take him.

"PET? Is that what you call him?!" Tsunade was about to punch Itachi, when the boy, Naruto, spoke up.

"Please do not fight on my behalf. If Itachi wishes it, I will stay."

Tsunade could hardly believe what she had just heard. Neither could Sakura. Her eyes watered with tears. 'How could he allow himself to be treated like that?' Itachi smirked.

"It seems he likes his position."

Tsunade snarled. "If you wish to discuss anything with me, I advise you to let Sakura tend to him properly."

Itachi looked at her blankly for a moment. 'Who the hell does she think she is? I mean, does she know who I am? I am Uchiha Itachi, captain of the Akatsuki, leader of all, controller of demons, master of chakra, king of…okay, now I am rambling.'

"Fine." He thrust the chain at Sakura who immediately dropped it and put her arm around Naruto's shoulder and waist, guiding him out the room. The last thing she heard from her teacher was 'Bastard'. Sakura led the blond down a few doors until they came to her work room. She opened it and gestured for him to sit on the medical bed. 'It seems all those people wanted to know what was going on.' Sakura thought.

"I will go and prepare a bath for you, and see about some food. I'll draw the bath, and when I come back, I'll try and get those chains off, okay?" Sakura smiled. When he looked up, she drew in a breath. 'Those have got to be the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. And the bluest too. But they look so sad.'

Naruto stared at her in awe. 'I haven't had anyone be so polite since…." He nodded and she left through a door on the other side of the room. He heard water hitting metal. 'Must be filling up the tub.' He took a look around the room. He remembered going to a medic's office when he was smaller, around 4, but this room wasn't like the one he went to. It wasn't that horrible blinding white, but a soft pink. The bed wasn't stiff, but soft, and even though the room was clean, it didn't hold that sickening clean feeling with the smell of antiseptic. It was nice. He turned his attention back to Sakura when she returned into the room.

"Okay. Your bath is getting ready. Now for the shackles." She rummaged through a drawer until she gave a triumphant yell and turned around. Naruto shied away from her for a moment until she gave a reassuring smile. In her hand was a large bone saw.

"Isn't it cool? My friend Tenten made it for me. It's coat is stainless steel, and the metal is solid gold. She made it when I became a full medic. And the best part is, it never needs to be sharpened. I have used this thing a hundred times and is still as sharp as when I got it." She patted the tool/weapon lovingly. Naruto nodded along with her story not wanting to anger her and be at the end of a scorned woman and a killer bone saw.

Sakura came out of her reverie and blushed, realizing she went a little crazy for a moment. She went closer to Naruto, smiling when he didn't flinch. She held his arms up and carefully with skilled practice, sawed through the shackles on his wrist. They came off without problem and Naruto wasn't even hurt.

"Wow. Those were solid iron." Naruto exclaimed rubbing his wrists to get feeling back into them. Sakura grinned and repeated the procedure with his ankles and did the same to the collar but with a little more precision. She didn't want to kill Naruto by chopping into his neck.

"Phew. Done. And now to your bath." She helped Naruto off the bed. He felt elated with the shackles gone. He felt lighter and his neck felt free. There was some redness from where the metal chaffed his skin, but Sakura assured him she would fix it. He just nodded, feeling Kyuubi start to heel the wounds already.

"Now, get in. I will get some clothes for you, and I will wash you as well. I can tell you are weak, under weight, and overall sickly. No offense." She added the last part when Naruto glared up at her. "You would probably drown yourself by falling asleep. I added bubbles with lavender petals to get you to relax. So get in." She shoved him towards the tub and went out the room closing the door. He stood blinking in the room for a minute and then there was a flurry of action. He ripped the clothes off his body and climbed into the tub, hissing at the heat but welcoming it.

"Mmmmm. Smells nice." Naruto mumbled as he slowly drifted to sleep.

~Kit.~

-What the hell Kyuubi? I am trying to relax for once!-

~And?~

-Never mind- Naruto pouted and sunk deeper into the bubbles.

~Be careful.~

This caught Naruto's attention. –About what?-

~I have a bad feeling about this place.~

-Don't worry Kyuu. I'll protect you from the big bad bubbles- Naruto cooed as he lightly tossed some bubbles around.

~Ha. You wish. But seriously. Be on alert.~

-Haaaaaa. Fine.-

~Good. I'm going to sleep now~

Naruto grinned. Trust his fox to go to sleep right after saying that they were basically in danger. He smiled, and closed his eyes once more, drifting off into his own world. That was how Sakura found him. She went into fan girl mode as she saw him sleeping in the bath, blanketed by bubbles, and beautiful hair (the dirt was coming out) around his head, random wet strands sticking to his face, framing it.

"So. CUTE." Sakura whispered not so quietly. That woke Naruto up.

He blinked a few times in confusion. "WHAT THE HELL?" He screamed making sure certain parts of him were covered up. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a rather huge pile of bubbles surrounding his pride and joy.

Sakura giggled. "Come on. It isn't as if I haven't seen any before. And I am a professional. So just relax."

"But you're so young!!"

"Age does not determine experience."

"I would expect a 30 year old to have more experience than someone your age."

"That 30 year old may have only had one day of experience. I have 7 years!" Sakura grinned.

Naruto eyed her skeptically, but allowed her to near him, putting down the clothes and reaching for the soap and sponge. She started washing his arms and upper body.

"So, what's your full name?" She asked scrubbing his skin.

"Naruto Uzumaki. Yours?"

"I am Sakura Haruno."

"Age?"

"12. You?"

"Same! Favorite color?"

"Orange. Yours is pink right?"

"Nope! Everyone automatically assumes that. But nope, it isn't pink." Sakura beamed.

"What is it then?" Naruto laughed.

"Coral."

There was a silence.

"That is a shade of pink." Naruto deadpanned looking up at her, eyes sparkling.

'Well, with eyes like that, I might just change my favorite color to blue.' "So what? It isn't the pink everyone expects it to be." She huffed and motioned for him to turn so she could get to his back. She ran the sponge over his back and felt tight muscles.

"Relax. You're safe." She said in a soft motherly tone.

Naruto nodded and felt his eyes water. Soon, his bathwater was extremely salty.

"What's wrong?" Sakura was worried. She didn't want him to cry. It would turn his beautiful eyes all puffy and red.

"No one, for a long time, has treated me so…treated me like I am human." Naruto rasped.

Sakura felt her eyes water and she thrust herself at him, enveloping him in a hug. "You are human. No matter what. And you deserve to be treated like one." She stated. She felt Naruto shake his head.

"No. I am not. No matter how much I tell myself I am human, I'm not." He saw Sakura frown. "But I do deserve to be treated with respect." She nodded slowly at that, creasing her brow and continued to wash him. When they were done, she handed him a big, fluffy, coral colored towel and told him to get dress and sleep on the medical bed until he was rested. He nodded, grateful for the chance to sleep for real, and slept as soon as his head hit the bed. Sakura pulled the cover up to his chin and resisted the urge to kiss him on the cheek or forehead like a sister or mother. She closed the door behind her and went to see her teacher. She found the woman at her desk, staring with pure hatred at a piece of paper in her hand.

"What is that?" Sakura asked standing in front of the desk.

"That bastard." Her teacher uttered through clenched teeth.

"Pardon?"

"He's using us!" her teacher banged a head on the desk, which resulted in the whole floor shaking. Her teacher was one strong woman.

"What are you saying?" Sakura had never seen her teacher so shaken up. Something must have been terribly wrong.

"Itachi. We pay him or he will release the demon within Naruto."

"What?" Sakura stepped away from her teacher, who glared at her.

"Naruto isn't a demon. He merely contains one." Sakura nodded at this. 'So that was why he said he wasn't human.'

"Do you know the story of when Kyuubi attacked us?" Sakura nodded. "Well, Minato sealed the demon within his son. No one heard of him, until now. And I will do everything in my power to keep Naruto here." Tsunade's eyes softened as she remembered when Naruto was born. She actually was mid-wife.

Sakura nodded vigorously. She wanted Naruto to stay too, away from that monster Itachi. "So what will happen?"

Tsunade sighed. "Honestly? I have no idea."

Sakura nodded. "So where are they?" Sakura added extra venom on 'they'.

"I put them in rooms in my private bath house near here. They will collect Naruto by dinner. And if I don't answer to their demands, they said they will attack the village whenever they felt like it until I concede."

"What was the price?" Sakura asked. Tsunade held up the piece of paper to her face and Sakura's eyes bulged. She had never seen so many zero's in her life, never mind she had never thought that that many zero's attacked to a 1 could even be a number.

"Is that possible? We will go bankrupt!" Sakura screeched.

"Exactly. Making the city weak, allowing Itachi to attack and taking over the city. We have no choice but to fight. And right now, we aren't the best of friends with Suna. We have no choice." Tsunade repeated to herself.

"And Naruto?"

"I have no idea about the process in which he can be controlled. Certainly not on his own, that's for sure. But I can't do anything."

"Can't we hide him?" Sakura asked earnestly.

"No. The Akatsuki crew is strong enough without the demon. They are formidable enough on their own and would hold us under siege until Naruto comes out. And I am sure with a heart like Naruto's he wouldn't want anyone to be hurt on his behalf." Tsunade sighed again and pulled out a bottle of Sake.

Sakura nodded and stood in the silence for a while. She left the room, leaving her brooding teacher to drown herself in her sake. 'Poor Naruto.' She wandered over to her room, opened her door, and screamed.

"What are you doing in here?" Sakura spat at Itachi.

Itachi turned around from Naruto's bed to look at the girl. 'Ew. Pink.'

"Getting what belongs to me. Until I have my answer, I would like him near me at all times. Don't mess with us." Itachi held up a knife to Naruto's throat as Sakura stepped near them. Sakura growled.

"No. I'll be fine." Naruto pleaded to Sakura.

"Good boy." Kisame sneered.

Itachi strolled out of the room, the rest of his crew in tow. Sakura was enraged to see new shackles on Naruto. They seemed to be even stronger that the last ones. When she was sure they had left the floor, she ran to the Hokage's room.

"They took him!" Sakura yelled.

Tsunade was about to throw the empty sake bottle at Sakura for interrupting her Hokage duties (they include drinking, napping, gambling) when she heard what the girl had said.

"What?"

"They took him!"

Tsuande thought for a moment. 'There's no way I could pay that ransom. I wonder how many warriors we have in the village.'

"Shizune!" Tsunade barked. A black haired woman rushed into the room.

"Yes Hokage-sama?"

"How many warriors are still in the village?"

Shizune looked down at the pad of paper she carried with her at all times. "It seems that 97% are here."

"That will do. Might as well get this over with. Round them up and tell them to be in front of my tower at the hour."

"Um, Hokage-sama. It is 5:59." Shizune said glancing at the sun out of the window.

"Fine. Within 10 minutes." Tsunade said that with a bit of sarcasm.

Shizune bowed and ran out the door to finish her duty.

"Ready Sakura?" The busty woman turned to the pink head.

"As I'll ever be."

Sakura followed her teacher out the tower to be faced with hundreds of men. She glanced around, spotting some of her friends. She, like her friends, were chakra users. Only about 15% of the Konoha population was able to use chakra. But they had the largest amount of chakra users out of all the villages. That was why they were the head village. She heard her mentor clear her throat.

"We were threatened by the ship members of Akatsuki!"

A roar was heard throughout the sea of people.

"They want us to pay a ransom that would devastate the village, and all others that chose to help us."

The roar grew.

"So what should we do?"

The sounds of 'kill' and 'fight' echoed in the breeze. Tsunade smirked, happy with their reaction.

"Let's go!"

The crowd cheered as Tsunade led the way to her private bathhouse the intruders were lodged in. She reached the door, made a motion to knock on it, but instead kicked it down. Inside you could see a Red haired Akatsuki arguing with the blonde shemale thingy, but they immediately directed their attention towards Tsunade.

"So, you have come up with an answer quick, yeah?" the blond Deidara grunted.

The red head rolled his eyes. "I think her answer is pretty obvious when she brought the whole village with her."

"No matter. Who should get Itachi?" Deidara asked reaching for his clay concealed within a pouch on his hip.

"You."

"What, un? I want to try my new art style on them!"

"What you do is hardly called art."

"What, un?"

"Art lasts forever and is beautiful. All you do is blow things up, and sigh at the blood being splattered around."

"Art lasts for a delicate moment, then ends. It's memory is what makes it beautiful. The fact that it blossomed and then ceased is what makes it art, yeah!"

"No."

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT THE FUCK UP?!" Another member of Akatsuki burst into the room, swinging his giant scythe. Meanwhile, the residents of Konoha were standing there in a daze. Did these people not know they were being attacked?

"Oh for fucks sake. Look, argue about it later. Here come the rest." Hidan said as he the rest of the members came into the room. One was decidedly…hyper.

"Ooooh guests! Are we having a party? Oooooh. Is it a surprise party? Let's all hide. I call carpet!" The one with the orange mask clapped his hands and dove for the carpet on the floor. By this time, Tsunade's eye was twitching. They weren't taking her seriously.

"Not now Tobi. It seems that you have come up with an answer?" A man with piercings all over his face turned to them.

"Yes." Tsunade replied happy to be acknowledged.

"Fine."

Itachi came forth with Naruto in tow, yanking his chain. The people of the crowd yelled in disgust at the treatment.

"How the hell could you do that?"

"You monster!"

"Let him go!"

Itachi smirked. "Please. In a minute, you will all wish I had kept him on this chain." He took a medallion out of his pocket and muttered something over it. Suddenly Naruto made a cry of anguish and fell to the floor. A red aura surrounded him.

"Is that his chakra?" Sakura asked. She had never seen such a dangerous looking chakra before. Tsuande nodded.

"Get ready."

Naruto hunched over, his eyes screwed shut and mouth open in a silent cry. The chakra took on the shape of a fox with nine tails. Slowly, the chakra became more concentrated as it seemed to mold onto Naruto like a second skin. Soon, Naruto was no longer standing there. It was now a smaller version of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

"Demon!" The crowd yelled.

Sakura listened in horror as the crowd who just yelled for the poor boy's salvation now screamed for his death. Tears formed in her eyes. Could they not see he was in pain and had no control over what was happening? She shuddered at the thought of all that evil, highly concentrated chakra becoming a second skin on her. Surely her skin would be burnt all over. Itachi said something else over the medallion, and for a minute it seemed as if the kitsune was unsure of what to do. Itachi merely said something over the medallion, infused his chakra into it, and Naruto…no not Naruto, he would never do something such as that…Kyuubi attacked.

Daggers and swords flashed as people tried to hinder the demon. Sakura wanted to do something, but she didn't know what. She saw as anyone who got near the form was instantly consumed by the chakra, burning in the process. She hopped from one foot to the next, trying to figure out what to do.

"Sakura? What are you doing?" Her friend Tenten yelled at her.

"Do something!" Ino screamed.

She wanted to tell them to stop and make them understand Naruto wasn't meaning to hurt them. But it would look pretty unconvincing giving the circumstances. She glanced around and saw someone else besides her unmoving. 'Hinata!' She ran towards her friend.

"Please, we need to do something." Sakura rushed out.

Hinata nodded.

"Do you know anything? Tsunade is kind of busy." She asked pointing in the direction of her teacher. Tsunade was currently wrestling with Hidan and Deidara, dodging the scythe and bombs with grace.

Hinata thought for a moment. "The thing he has. It made him do something." Hinata pointed to Itachi and Naruto respectively. Sakura had a flashback to five minutes ago when Itachi muttered something over the medallion and Naruto transformed.

"We need to get him away from it!" Sakura said and made her way towards Itachi. She saw that he was on the outskirts of the battle, blank face showing no emotion as she saw blood, sinew and bone fly through the air. He still was clutching the medallion. Sakura charged into him from his right, but he swiftly dodged stepping forward. What he failed to realize was Hinata in front of him. She jabbed her fingers into a few points on his arm and he promptly let go of the medallion. Hinata smirked at the expression he wore on his face. 'Never underestimate Hinata baby!'

Sakura turned toward the crowD that had stopped moving. She struggled her way into the center of the crowd until she came in front of Naruto's form. She gasped. He was covered in charred skin, and his clothes seemed to have melted itself onto him. She quickly moved to try and heal him when she was stopped.

"No. Let him die!" A random man said. She brushed off his hand and continued to walk.

"Leave the demon!" The crowd chanted. They started throwing daggers at his body while Sakura and Hinata did their best to protect him from the onslaught. Sakura ignored them. She dropped down to her knees, desperate to hold in her tears. She didn't want the salt to sting the wounds, nor show her weakness. The people were enraged that she was trying to help Naruto and grabbed onto her, pulling her away from the body. She screamed, kicked and spat but to no avail. She turned to look for Tsunade, but saw her teacher fly back from a powerful explosion caused by Deidara's C2. She then looked at the rest of the members and did a double take at Itachi. He was holding Naruto. She looked at where the body had been, and sure enough, Naruto was gone. The crowd realized this and moved towards him, wanting to make sure the demon died. Itachi flickered, then Akatsuki, and vanished.

"DAMN!!!" Tsunade yelled and pounded her hands into the dirt. "I lost him, again."


	9. SORRY!

I know that I haven't updated in like FOREVER. And I have a legitimate reason for this. I caught a virus on my computer and my tech guy was like "I'll get rid of it. Just back up the stuff you need, but everything will be there." So I did, and when I got to my fanfic folder he was like "Nope. Don't need that. It will be there". LIAR! It's gone. I had like twice as much stuff as I have uploaded! So I will be updating (hopefully) every Saturday afternoon or night. But don't worry. You shall get your story! I am so sorry. But please, help me mourn the loss of my story. *Plays national anthem* They didn't stand a chance against the Trojan monster.


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